'The Fosters' Shames Rather than Explains

June 30th, 2015 1:24 PM

One of the more intriguing aspects of the so-called “educational,” well-meaning, well-intentioned, gay-centered television shows on ABC Family is that few, if any of them, turn out to be well-meaning or well-intentioned at all.

Take last night’s episode of “The Fosters,” "More Than Words." For those who don't know, “The Fosters" is the show about an interracial lesbian couple and their blended family of biological and adopted children of varying ethnic and sexual orientations. Most infamously, last season they had the distinction of bringing us the youngest ever on-camera gay kiss between two 13 year old boys.

Well, on last night’s episode, Cole (Tom Phelan), the 15 year old transgendered friend of one of the adopted children, Callie (Maia Mitchell), shows up at the beach and starts planning prom for the gay kids at the high school. After he’s done talking about how awesome it’s going to be to finally have their own prom, where “a guy can go dressed like a girl” and “two girls can go together,” Cole takes his shirt off, revealing heavy scarring under his chest where he had his own breasts removed to look like a man.  

After Cole walks away, Callie’s straight friend asks her if Cole did that to himself on purpose, and she nearly eviscerates him. She responds with a torrent of confrontational “Yeah! And?!’s” and a long tale about Cole’s personal struggle; being born into the wrong body, how he’s finally coming into a good place now, and how he, the straight guy, better not try and make Cole feel weird about anything.

Here you have a kid who had himself essentially maimed to turn into a man. A straight guy asks the most normal of questions, like, “That guy intentionally cut his chest?” And in response, on a show that’s supposed to make people want to understand the gay and transgender lifestyle, one of the main characters responds with a hostile, “Yeah? And?” as if the friend's curiosity is what is abnormal about this situation.

It makes you wonder if the real purpose of “The Fosters” is to teach and explain alternative lifestyles, or to shame, ridicule, and intimidate people from ever even asking about it. Why must libs and gay rights advocates always silence and attack anyone who questions them?

The theme of shame and vengefulness was heavy on last night’s episode. The main drama surrounding the adults on the program was the pending reunion between Lena’s (Sherri Saum) father’s white son from his first marriage, and Lena’s mother. The drama here was that 20 years ago the son, Nate, had called Lena’s mother, who is black, the n-word, and never apologized.

Now, you might think the fact that this event happened 20 years ago, when the Nate was 17 years old, and the fact that he appears in this episode with a black girlfriend whom he says he intends to marry, might in some ways mitigate or off-set some of the outrage over this Paula Dean-esque type incident. You would be wrong.

Instead, after Nate gets done wrapping up a heartfelt apology for all the Christmases the family hadn’t spent together over the last two decades, Lena’s mother then apologizes for her role in why the family hasn’t been together over the holidays.

Which, sets Lena off on a tirade. In her mind, there’s no way in the world her mother should ever have to apologize to a guy who called her the n-word, even if it was 20 years ago, even if his current girlfriend is black, and even if he has no recollection of ever calling her the n-word in the first place. What follows is a ridiculous scene where Nate can’t remember what he did wrong and his father ends up throwing him and his black girlfriend out of his life, presumably for good this time.

So, there you have it. It’s more important to tear apart a father-son relationship that was just getting back on course after 20 years, over one word that was said by an angry 17 year old, than it is to forgive. How ironic that a show that is supposedly about love and family destroys one of the few biological family relationships it portrays. Another cultural strategy of the left. Warp the definition of marriage and family so that alternative ones are seen as normal - even preferable - compared with the traditional ones we know are ideal for the best outcomes for children.

This just perfectly encapsulates the left and the gay agenda. None of it is about understanding and tolerance. It’s about "justice" and revenge. There is no such thing as water under the bridge, being the bigger person, or reconciliation. Every affront has to be prosecuted to the full extent, no matter the consequence.

Is love still winning? Could have fooled me.