Lance Bass stars as Prince Charming in Todrick Hall’s “Cinderfella.”
Legalize love, you say? This particular slogan comes from FCKH8, the internet-based advocacy campaign for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. With President Obama’s recent declaration that marriage should be legal for everyone, LegalizeLove.com has also launched a campaign where same-sex couples and families “speak with one voice” with our president. They’ve added the Obama logo to the “o” in “love” to tie everything together.
Not only is “legalize love” great alliteration, it’s a great way of representing the pro-same-sex marriage stance. For many advocates in this sociopolitical movement, legalizing same-sex marriage isn’t about the politics or the religion or even the legal and economic benefits involved. It’s about recognizing that love is love, no matter who feels it or for whom they feel it.
Enter Todrick Hall and “Cinderfella,” a YouTube music video starring Todrick Hall as our protagonist, Cinderfella, Janice Dickinson as his evil stepmother, and *NSync alum (and one of very few openly gay pop band boys) Lance Bass as Prince Charming. There are also a number of other familiar faces. Everyone sings and dances a mash-up of Disney favorites and pop hits, rewritten to fit the story and overall concept of the video: legalize love. If Cinderfella wants to get his Prince Charming at a fabulous ball where queerness is as normal as heterosexuality, then queers will have to be given the right to get married just like the straight people who have enjoyed the privilege for so long.
The appropriation of Disney imagery just makes this video even better, since Disney is what structures many kids’ interpretations and ideals of love. Are we ever going to get a same-sex love story from the infamous animation studio? Who knows? We can only hope. And in the meantime, we can watch that fantasy unfold on YouTube.
I think you are misunderstand both President Obama’s comments on gay marriage and the thrust of the campaign to establish same sex marriage legislation, but your heart is in the right place.
Contrary to what you may believe, I’m quite familiar with his comments, the purpose behind adding same-sex marriage to the Democratic platform, and the overall thrust of the campaign. Regardless, at the end of the day, the fact is that people with “alternative sexualities” (and what the hell? that language needs to go) are people who love the same as anyone else. Why shouldn’t that love be legal? Answer: bigotry. And I’m not down with that.