TV writers....

[kengr]

... really need to do their research.

Tonight's NCIS: New Orleans has a baby getting kidnapped. the parents are a married gay couple. One of whom is in the Navy (not sure about the other).

Just a *minor* little problem.

In Louisiana, gay marriage is illegal. So is adoption by gays.

So the NOPD *wouldn't* be cheerfully supporting NCIS in the search. even if the officers involved were sympathetic, *legally* there'd be all sorts of problems.

But the episode doesn't have a hint of the fact that there'd be any problems with the marriage or the adoption (and from the storyline, the adoption *was* done in the state).

So while it's nice to have a storyline involving a couple of dedicated gay dads and their daughter, it is ignoring the not *remotely* "minor" issue that they could *have* the kid legally in that state, nor would the state recognize that they were married.

NCIS: LA, it'd work. Original NCIS, maybe. But NCIS: New Orleans? Not a chance.

Comments

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

I have the perfect gold star for them:

[kengr]

Nope. Anybody who knows anything about gay rights knows that Louisiana is if not the *worst* state legally, it's in the bottom 5.

So I can't even grant them "attempt". It's more like *insult*.

It'd be like having a story about a mixed-race couple that's having some problem or other, just like a white couple. But setting it in some horribly racist place/time and not having anybody act like there's anything wrong with them being mixed race.

Utter fantasy, complete "whitewash" of reality. *Denial* of reality.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Here's some other possible stars:

[xander-opal.livejournal.com]

A story, not about what is, but involving things that could be. Or, dare I say, *should* be.

I'm pretty sure TV spreads cultural memes. The loud picture-box shows shiny people that some part of the watcher wants to be like.

[kengr]

Yeah, but when it shows something as "normal" in a place where it's illegal and folks are fighting hard to make it legal, then it is *hiding* the fact that things need to change.

Doing the story and having the couple have all sorts of trouble because the local authorities won't recognize the marriage (it'd have to have been out of state) and the adoption (also have to have been out of state, which breaks some parts of the plot they used) would show that change is needed, badly.

The NCIS folks, being federal would recognize the marriage and adoption, but they'd have to fight the locals. Maybe have some locals sympathetic and others doing their best to cause trouble.

*That* would have been a powerful story.

ETA: If we had the *actual* legal climate, NCIS could have recovered the baby only to have the state agency in charge of child welfare take it away from the couple, because the adoption isn't recognized in Loiusiana. (and yes, that sort of stuff *happens* to gay couples).

Wouldn't *that* be a note to end on.

What they had was just one where they changed a wife to a husband. Same old, same old, just with that one change.