The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is always seen as one of America’s most wholesome events of the year. But yesterday the Turkey Day celebration caused friction with several fans when the cast of the hit Broadway play Kinky Boots danced in high heels and drag during the parade.
Billy Porter, who plays Boots‘ fabulous drag queen Lola, and the rest of the cast were broadcast live on camera dancing and singing in the streets around 10:30 am and it wasn’t long after that people on everything from blogs to Facebook to Twitter sent out polarizing messages about the Boots cast.
“So I sit down to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade with my 9 yr old daughter, a 40+ year tradition for me and NBC and Macy’s decide the 3rd act will be the musical act from Kinky Boots, promoting homosexuality and cross dressing,” wrote one angry fan on FreeRepublic.com.
“Thank you Macy’s and NBC for making me discuss cross dressing deviates on Thanksgiving Day. I don’t think, however, that my conversation with my daughter went the way you would have wanted,” he added.
However, not everyone was offended by the cast and many people voiced their support and praise for the segment.
“Kinky Boots Musical! Drag Queens in The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! Hell yes!” wrote one Twitter.
If you ask us, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal and certainly not a problem to see men in drag at the Macy’s parade. It’s entertainment and most importantly it was entertainment on a day when Americans are supposed to be celebrating love, unity and freedom of expression, not playing to the discomfort and insecurities of parents who are too lazy to explain to their kids that other people in the world, who have absolutely no impact on their lives, like or get paid to dress as another sex. Anyway, we think it would be a lot more crushing for kids to learn the true story of Thanksgiving and the massacring of most of the Native American population just because they were seen as “creepy” and “different.”
Check out some other comments about the Boots performance below. – nicholas robinson
