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Playwright Jeffrey Solomon, writer and performer of "Santa Claus is Coming Out" (and regular Instinct contributor) has issued a response to a Focus on the Family blogger's attacks on the production. You may have heard that fundies aren't too happy with what they call the "sexualization" of Santa, but Solomon himself isn't too happy with their manipulation and vilification of the play.
Solomon's response, fresh in our hands:
I must strongly take issue with some misinformation, distortions, half truths and outright lies being disseminated in Ms. Cushman's blog about my play.
I will address the charges and accusations in the order in which they appeared.
"Pictures on a Web site promoting the production depict Santa in not-so-subtle sexually suggestive situations."
This is just not true. We have not marketed this play with sex. The play is not about sex. The play simply asks
a hypothetical question. "How would the world react, if Mrs. Claus were revealed to be a beard, and that Santa Claus was actually a gay man?"
The image i believe Ms. Cushman is referring to (see santaclausiscomingout.com) is of me, a grown man, sitting on Santa's lap in a way that would suggest I am a boyfriend or spouse. We are reading a newspaper heralding the news of Santa Claus being outed to the world.
It is NOT a sexual image, anymore than Mrs. Claus and Santa Claus holding hands is a sexual image, or the Little Mermaid kissing her beloved Prince Eric is sexual.
I reject that classification categorically.
The very mention or the image of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people is not automatically sexual, unless you are viewing them with sex-tinted glasses.
"The play also mocks those who support traditional values."
WRONG. There are many heterosexual characters in the play who live by traditional values, including: 1. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, a solid family man/deer, all grown up and married to Clarise with a happy nuclear family of fawns. 2. Pete, the Elf Foreman, Santa's right hand man and solid family man/elf. 3. Anne and Frank Gray, the loving parents of a seven year old boy from Wisconsin, whose gender atypical gift request to Santa Claus has them worried their son may be a little "non-traditional."
"....perverts the innocence of Christmas and sexualizes the longtime, child-revered icon of Santa Claus."
Santa Claus does not just belong to Christians, or even to Christmas. He is a global icon. I am a reformed Jew but my parents permitted me the Santa Claus myth as a child because i was so thrilled by his magic. My Dad even hired a SantaClaus to come visit me one holiday season bearing Hanukkah gifts and i was dazzled with wonder, until i looked out my bedroom window and saw him drive away in his V.W. bug. Let me assure you
that the innocence and magic of Santa Claus remains very much intact in this play, and is not perverted in any way. I love Santa Claus!
Finally, let me address Ms. Cushman's central charge:
"Clearly homosexual activists like Solomon have no qualms about using shock tactics to expose children to homosexuality."
The Play IS NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN. However, I must take issue with the use of the word "expose" as if encountering gay people is the same thing as coming into contact with the N1H1 virus.
The tactics Ms. Cushman refers to here have to do with some marketing ploys i used to sell tickets to adults to the play in Provincetown, Massachusetts one summer. She quotes from an interview I did here with theatrescene.net:
"I was dressed as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and I had a sign saying ‘Rudolph Supports Sexual Diversity.’ And the owner of the pharmacy on Commercial Street came out [shouting]. ‘I’ve got kids inside. Get out of here. They’re asking questions!"
I should explain, that in the play, Rudolph is the first person...er, creature Santa comes out to, by dint of his sensitivity to difference, and what i was trying to point out in that interview, maybe not so articulately, was the level of fear and anger from this woman and others that summer that was touched off by having to explain a gay santa claus to children, and how ironic it was that their reactions were similar to the world's hysteria following Santa's coming out in my play.
Incidentally, supporting sexual diversity in the animal kingdom is not such a big deal. Reindeer, and other creatures, don't have a big hang up about it. Check the science. Sometimes male penguins love other male penguins and try to raise children together (though usually they are rocks). And sometimes lady seagulls mate for life. And sometimes Rams hump each other.
But on a much more serious note, My intention as a playwright was never to destroy Christmas for children like the gay Grinch, or to "expose children to homosexuality," rather it was to ask adults, "Why is it still taboo to be open and honest with young children, about the existence of gay people?"
If you don't believe that is true, notice the dearth of gay characters on children's television.The child who may grow up to be gay, has no reflection of himself. There is no happily ever after in sight during his or her formative years. I was one of those children, and i can tell you that the fact that subject was unmentionable and invisible when i was a child caused me a lot of unnecessary pain and shame.
I have created in the play, the Santa Claus I needed. The one I wish I had known. There is nothing sexual about that.
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