By Eric Hegedus\nNew York Post<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A petition to ban a Netflix comedy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/12\/16\/netflix-under-fire-for-depicting-jesus-as-gay-in-new-christmas-movie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">that depicts<\/a>\u00a0Jesus Christ as a gay man has gained more than 2.1 million signatures \u2014 and counting.<\/p>\n<p>The bubbling backlash against the film \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81078397\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The First Temptation of Christ<\/a>\u201d \u2014 by makers of the Brazilian comedy show \u201cPorta dos Fundos\u201d \u2014 led to the creation of a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/netflix-especial-de-natal-porta-dos-fundos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Change.org<\/a>\u00a0charge to remove the parody from the streaming channel, with a goal of reaching 3 million signers.<\/p>\n<p>But in an interview with Variety\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/digital\/news\/porta-dos-fundos-netflix-christmas-special-1203440944\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">posted Monday<\/a>, \u201cPorta dos Fundos\u201d co-founder F\u00e1bio Porchat said he wasn\u2019t sure what the fuss was all about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe play at insinuating that Jesus has a new friend, and probably this new friend is gay, but they have just been having fun and a very good time in the desert for 40 days,\u201d he told the trade publication, adding that perhaps LGBTQ folks themselves should be offended.<\/p>\n<p>(Note: There is a key spoiler in the next paragraph.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anybody should be angry with us, it should be the gay community because a gay character turns out to be the Devil. But the gay community loves us!\u201d he said \u2014 though one Decider take\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/2019\/12\/09\/the-first-temptation-of-christ-on-netflix-stream-it-or-skip-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has conversely noted<\/a>\u00a0that Jesus\u2019 purported boyfriend in the film is \u201ca bundle of swishy stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The program depicts Jesus Christ stumbling into a surprise birthday party thrown by his parents, Joseph and a pot-smoking Mary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJesus, who\u2019s hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family,\u201d says the Netflix synopsis for the 46-minute film, which considers what would happen if Jesus were a closeted gay man \u2014 and partnered \u2014 but with a devilishly twisted ending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Christmas special so wrong, it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos,\u201d it continues, mentioning the troupe and show (which translates to \u201cBack Door\u201d) that has a history of skewering religion, politics, culture and more.<\/p>\n<p>Porchat suggested that Brazil\u2019s strong religious demographic may be the force behind the push for Netflix to drop the film, but added that their intention is misguided.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor some Catholics here in Brazil, it\u2019s O.K. if Jesus is a bad guy, uses drugs: That\u2019s no problem. The problem is he\u2019s gay. No, he can\u2019t be gay. And that\u2019s interesting because Jesus is everything,\u201d he said. \u201cGod is black and white and gay and straight. God is everything. It\u2019s more homophobic to be insulted by a gay Jesus than to make Jesus special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Porchat also made clear that Netflix \u2014 which Variety notes has had, along with Viacom, a majority stake in the comedy group for two years \u2014 has no plans to pull the film.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Netflix hasn\u2019t] said anything to us like, \u2018Maybe we should stop making the special available.\u2019 They support freedom of speech,\u201d Porchat said, according to Variety.<\/p>\n<p>And when\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/12\/16\/netflix-under-fire-for-depicting-jesus-as-gay-in-new-christmas-movie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reached for comment Monday<\/a>\u00a0by The Post, the streaming service would not comment, other than providing a statement from the comedy\u2019s creators, including the assertion that \u201cfreedom of expression is an essential construction for a democratic country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/12\/18\/petition-to-ban-netflixs-gay-jesus-comedy-gets-over-2-million-signatures\/\">https:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/12\/18\/petition-to-ban-netflixs-gay-jesus-comedy-gets-over-2-million-signatures\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Petition to ban Netflix\u2019s gay Jesus comedy gets over 2 million signatures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}