03/19/2007
Garrison Keillor Apologizes for the Misunderstanding
Garrison Keillor issued an apology for the "misunderstanding" he created in a column last week, an apparently "tongue in cheek" look at parenting and the good old days. For many, including myself, the tongue was not far enough into the cheek. Here's a portion of the apology:
"I live in a small world—the world of entertainment, musicians, writers—in which gayness is as common as having brown eyes. Ever since I was in college, gay men and women have been friends, associates, heroes, adversaries, and in that small world, we talk openly and we kid each other and think nothing of it. But in the larger world, gayness is controversial. In almost every state, gay marriage would be voted down if put on a ballot. Gay men and women have been targeted by the right wing as a hot-button issue. And so gay people out in the larger world feel besieged to some degree. In the small world I live in, they feel accepted and cherished as individuals, but in the larger world they may feel like Types. My column spoke as we would speak in my small world and it was read by people in the larger world and thus the misunderstanding. And for that, I am sorry. Gay people who set out to be parents can be just as good parents as anybody else, and they know that, and so do I."
Dan Savage has a thoughtful analysis of exactly why Keillor just didn't get it. I do accept Keillor's apology, but somehow I doubt he's naive enough to believe his column isn't being read by more than a handful of folks in Small Town, Minnesota.
You may have missed...
Garrison Keillor: A Bigot's Home Companion [tr]
Posted 3:45 PM EST by Andy in Garrison Keillor, Gay Parents, News | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
I hope Lily Tomlin gives him a hell of a talkin' to.
Posted by: Scott | Mar 19, 2007 3:53:00 PM
Keillor is a brilliant person. Therefore I simply don't believe that he and his editors were all blissfully unaware that this article was patently offensive.
This is a good example of how good people can love and respect gay and lesbian friends, colleagues, and neighbors and still harbor deep disdain for gays and lesbians as a whole. It makes me wonder whether I have similar covert conflicts regarding other minority groups, and encourages me to try to address those as best I can.
That said, I'll never again be able to listen to Lake Wobegon stories (my family and I have loved those for as long as I can remember) without remembering this incident and the weird sense of betrayal I felt.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 19, 2007 3:55:13 PM
Dan Savage is a complete moron and he missed the point. Maybe GK's column didn't quite hit it the way he wanted to, but it WAS meant as a joke and poked fun at the right people. On Savage's own board he's getting ripped to shreds.
Posted by: @À | Mar 19, 2007 4:01:02 PM
Judging by the text itself, it wasn't apparent at all that the piece was meant to be tongue-in-cheek or satirical.
I don't think that such an acclaimed writer would be unskilled enough to rely on people knowing him, his work and his social circle to identify the work as not being literal.
The article was phobic. Not in the vitriolic, hateful sense of the word, just in a mildly ignorant way. I'll take reading that over being bashed any day. (Not that we should need to choose.)
Posted by: karashi | Mar 19, 2007 4:04:22 PM
I agree with the previous comment. I think that this blog way overreacted to Keillor's column in its original post about it.
I think also that it's particularly rich that Dan Savage, who's made his entire career screeching at people to "lighten up" (and a million tired variations thereof), now has his lace panties in a wad about Garrison F-ing Keillor, of all people!
Posted by: FML | Mar 19, 2007 4:07:16 PM
Okay, so those who may have been offended by GK's comments, don't listen to him, buy his books,etc. Simple as that. But, don't call him derogatory names or do/say anything else that makes you perhaps equally blameful in the name-calling, etc.
Okay, onto more important topics, PLEASE.
Posted by: Stephen | Mar 19, 2007 4:07:59 PM
The only people who find this offensive are folks who know nothing of GK's style of humor. Those of us who are fans saw immediately where he was going and got a good laugh from it. The knee-jerk crowd needs to get off their high-horse and worry about those who are really targeting our people, not our allies who were writing satiriclly for their fans, not the general public. Savage (whom I normally adore) is way off base on this one. he could not have gotten it more wrong. Why? because he is not a GK fan and has no conception of the context of the piece.
Posted by: John | Mar 19, 2007 4:12:08 PM
This blog and Dan Savage overreacted to the column big-time, imho. Keillor is known for subtle, dry humor. Scandinavian American humor to boot, really. It's a special genre, and it's not accessible to everyone. If you've ever thought, "I don't get why Keillor is funny," then his humor isn't accessible to you and you ought to be careful in assessing it. Keep in mind Keillor does his radio show on the road each year to massive sell-out crowds from everywhere from Honolulu to Charlotte; some people do get it.
By contrast, Dan Savage's approch to humor is over-the-top and not subtle in the least, which is fine--it's his style, and it works. He is a great writer and satirist and commentator. But not all senses of humor are, or should be, like his.
In the end, I'm worried Dan and Andy--and many others--overreacted simply because the subtle humor was not accessible to them. And that's a pity. Even if we characterize this Keillor column as a bomb (and all satirists bomb from time to time), it's too bad to assess the measure of a writer from a bomb rather than from the overall body of work, and in his hundreds of writings and thousands of hours of radio I don't see anything antigay but, indeed, quite the opposite.
Posted by: ebsur | Mar 19, 2007 4:14:39 PM
I always liked Keillor and was perplexed at why he took on gay parents in such a way. The first thing that popped into my head when I read the initial column was that Keillor, as he states in his “apology”, is surrounded by gay men and women.
I am a big fan of Dan Savage (his book The Commitment is a must read) and think he pretty much sums up what many of us are thinking. The last paragraph of Savage’s response hits the nail on the “obvious” head.
Posted by: Jon-Marc | Mar 19, 2007 4:15:37 PM
The trouble with news blogs these days is the hyper-critical, hyper-vigilant, on guard, ready-to-be-offended nature of the reporting. Relax! And remember this is Garrison "Benign" Keillor you're talking about. If he's made out to be the enemy, things are in a sorry state indeed. There are far 'better' arenas in which to find offense.
Posted by: Boy From Minnesota | Mar 19, 2007 4:19:25 PM
When I read the column, I had a mixed reaction ot it. I read it in the "The way things never were" kind of way that Keillor often uses. He does that a lot and trounces the image of the simpler, better time by taking it the absurd to point out that things were just as messy and complex then as they are now.
In many ways, I think that is were Keillor really screwed up. Many people today really do believe that life used to be that way. If "Happy Days" were on in prime time today a lot of folks would think it was a documentary and not a sitcom. I think that's why Keillor falls flat here. I don't think he realized how far out of touch with the reality of the past people really are.
Posted by: Ed | Mar 19, 2007 4:21:08 PM
Gays are known for overreacting..This, the snickers ad, almost everything lately is an attack on being gay, when its really not. Anybody who has ever read anything that GK has done, should know that the entire article was tongue in cheek. i dont see how anybody can not see that.
Posted by: Kit | Mar 19, 2007 4:21:58 PM
When has Keillor written anything that wasn't tongue-in-cheek or satirical? I grew up in rural, central MN, and went to college a mile from the Lake Wobegon hiking trail. I found the humor in this article very clear, and very consistent with the mentality of the culture I grew up in. It definitely speaks to the gloomy, slow pace of life that those who've lived in the prairie have experienced.
He does have a tendency to greatly underestimate his conservative audience, however, and that was the major mistake of this article. It speaks to the democratic, liberal base that he comes from, and even then the humor speaks to a select cultural subset.
I made the guy while I was chair of the GLBT student group at my college - he's extremely cordial and EXTREMELY liberal in person. I'll take that over what I've read in print.
Posted by: scientitian | Mar 19, 2007 4:24:54 PM
People need to stop jumping to conclusions without thinking. When you read something, you need to think, who said it? What does this person believe? Where do they come from? What are they trying to convey? GK writes satire and is known for being very liberal and gay friendly. Had this been written by George Bush, it would be a different story (aside from probably being written in crayon).
Posted by: Chris | Mar 19, 2007 4:28:11 PM
That is I MET, not made Garrison Keillor. I am not his mother, contrary to popular belief. Sadly, I am a 23 year-old male.
Posted by: scientitian | Mar 19, 2007 4:29:17 PM
Most of these readers reacted the same way that the people reacted to Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal", in which he encourages the Irish to eat their babies. I laughed out loud at GK's portrayal of The Gays, and realized that he was making fun of those that villify us, although obviously others didn't get it. I don't take myself very seriously, and I don't take much of anyone else seriously, which is maybe why I found this laughable...
Posted by: Wayne | Mar 19, 2007 4:31:31 PM
Keillor needn't apologize to me and if I were him I wouldn't have apologized even for the misunderstanding. On the rare occasions when I write I don't write for everyone. I don't have time for everyone.
I'm not in the least a self-hating gay, nor am I in the least bit tolerant of 'phobes and haters. I am also not in the least bit interested in tearing and twisting my boa over imagined slights. The reaction to Keillor's column reminds me of Keith Boykin's website where everything is an affront to African-Americans.
Posted by: Gary Ballis | Mar 19, 2007 4:32:22 PM
Based on this bitchfest, I'm pretty sure I'd rather have somebody like GK at my next cocktail party instead of Mssrs. Towle and Savage.
Self-important whiners... ugh.
Posted by: Dan | Mar 19, 2007 4:40:02 PM
Nope, sorry. You can't blame readers for being (a) unable to appreciate subtle/dry Scandinavian humor, (b) ignorant of Keillor's work, or (c) super-sensitive about any and all things gay in order to find that article out of line. I lived in Minnesota for years, and have listened to PHC since I was in junior high. I have many of his books and CDs, and have loved his work in the past. I'm fully capable of appreciating subtle/dry humor, and I like Scandinavian everything. I'm also well-versed in Keillor's work, so I know what to expect when I read his column.
It was offensive. Most surprisingly so.
I accept his apology, because I feel confident that he didn't mean it that way. But I certainly understand how one would feel offended by such a column.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 19, 2007 4:42:49 PM
"Based on this bitchfest, I'm pretty sure I'd rather have somebody like GK at my next cocktail party instead of Mssrs. Towle and Savage. "
What a knock down throw down party that will be.
Posted by: mark m | Mar 19, 2007 4:52:00 PM
"The reaction to Keillor's column reminds me of Keith Boykin's website where everything is an affront to African-Americans."
Posted by: Gary Ballis |
..Or Jasmyne Cannick's blog when black women are wrongly portrayed by comedians.
Of course I'm teasing, but obviously not everyone is going to agree on what constitutes "homophobia", so part of the deal is respecting that others may be offended by it and are doing something about it.
The great news is that Garrison Keillor apologized, after realizing that he hurt the feelings of many gay men and women in his audience, those who are currently struggling for the right to marry and adopt children.
Now if General Pace could be as much of a man and follow suite.
Posted by: Da | Mar 19, 2007 4:58:39 PM
Andy Towle ACCEPTS Keilor's apology?!?!
Well, lah-dee-dah Andy....
So when are YOU going to apologize for over-reacting?
Sheesh....
Posted by: Max | Mar 19, 2007 5:15:09 PM
Um, I will take Andy Towle and Dan Savage ANY DAY over GK.
I was offended by the GK piece, but will confess that I am not very familiar with "Scandinavian Humor" and maybe missed it. Maybe if he were a Brit instead of a Swede, I would have "gotten" it.
But that is the point that Andy, Dan, etc. were trying to make. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc. then it probably is a duck. Apologies to GK, but if he had really thought about the content of his essay he could have seen where many of us could "misinterpret" him.
Posted by: Jonathon | Mar 19, 2007 5:16:35 PM
Yeah, I'm with Jonathon on that one. Andy and Dan would be way more fun at a cocktail party.
Okay, on to the next topic...
Posted by: Brian | Mar 19, 2007 5:30:47 PM
Thing is, in this case it put on a duck costume, did a great duck impression, but was definitely NOT a duck. I think we can all be pretty certain that GK is not a homophobe, although the sensitivity of his comedic tactics may be in question. In the context of Garrison Keillor's marital history and personal beliefs, it was meant to be IRONIC. I can understand that some may be offended by his often imperceptibly sub-subtle humor, but is this really the kind of person we need to tear down for showing poor judgement? I myself am more concerned with those who actually ARE homophobic, regardless of how homo-friendly they may sound.
Posted by: burnssuit | Mar 19, 2007 5:37:04 PM