Bravo's commitment to diversity not as strong as it's commitment to the dollar

Over the last several weeks as I've tuned into every episode of Top Chef on Bravo, I couldn't help but notice the commercial sponsors. One of the most prominent sponsors is eHarmony.com, a popular online dating service founded and operated by Dr. Neal Clark Warren, a Christian minister/psychologist formerly associated with James Dobson, founder and CEO of Focus on the Family, one of the most notoriously anti-gay, and bigoted organizations in existence in the United States. Focus on the Family is the parent organization of Exodous, an ex-gay organization that deals in "reparative therapy" and encourages gays who can't control their homosexual urges through celibacy and prayer to submit to castration (read "Ranchhand's" story).

What has intrigued me the most about this particular sponsorship is the fact that Bravo has "come out of the closet" regarding their commitment to "diversity". I have been impressed with such programming as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy which has unapologetically promoted the bridging of the gap between the gay and straight communities by showing the gay community to be made up of sensitive, talented, and helpful individuals who are about a whole lot more than just sex. They have also featured many gay individuals in programs such as Top Chef and Project Runway, as well as programs like Boy Meets Boy, and Gay Weddings. And lately they have been running ads about their commitment to diversity using Queer Eye's Jai Rodriguez. With these things in mind, and knowing of eharmony's blatant and unapologetic discrimination against gays, I was surprised and appalled to see that they were one of the leading sponsors for programs like Top Chef and even Queer Eye.

I emailed BRAVO and shared with them my concerns and questioned if their commitment to diversity was as deep as their commitment to making big bucks off of their bigoted sponsor. I received the standard automated response and the commercials still remain. So I'm here asking you, my readers, to register your thoughts with BRAVO concerning this obvious hypocrisy, and let them know that you demand that they quit talking out of both sides of their mouths. Either you're committed to diversity or you're not. You can't ride both sides of the fence!


Today's musical feature is Mozart's A Musical Joke, K. 522