Queer Eye: More Than A Makeover---A Review

A couple of years ago, there was a TV show called "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". There were 5 gay guys on the show that essentially taught straight guys how to dress and carry themselves in public.

I never watched it.

Right now, there is a spin off to that show on Netflix called "Queer Eye: More Than A Makeover". It is currently in its second season and I had not watched that show...until last night. I watched the first episode of season two and I have to admit, the show was very interesting for a number of reasons that I will get to in a minute, but first, I have to tell you this.

There is a blog that I visit several times a day called Your Other Brothers. The guys that write for the blog and run it are all same sex attracted Christian men that practice celibacy to remain obedient to Christ. The blog is a good place for people like me. I especially like the way they challenge us not to be afraid to love without falling in love or in lust. The approaches to this vary a great deal and many of the blog members and commenters discuss what's OK for them in the realm of SSA behavior. For instance, should SSA guys identify as gay? Is that too worldly? Can we or should we go to a same sex wedding? Are gay pride parades off the table? How do we deal with emotional dependency? Can we have side A friends?  These guys talk about everything including porn and masturbation. They shy away from nothing. Everything is on the table and I believe it's a good thing in the end to support a venue such as this for gay Christian men. We need a place to discuss this stuff that would drive the average straight Christian from the room screaming, 'unclean, unclean'.

Anyhow, yesterday, one of the writers posted a story entitled, WHY I LIKE “QUEER EYE”. The writer was talking about the rebooted show on Netflix and his article became quite controversial. There were many reactions. Most of the guys under 40 years old had watched it and saw nothing wrong with it. There was some disagreement among us who are over 40 and more conservative in our opinions. I was originally on the fence, thinking this was a gray area like eating food sacrificed to idols, but then I decided to watch episode one of season two and, I thought the message was good.

The cast and crew of the show went to a very small town in Georgia called Gay. Yes, there is apparently such a place. They went there in response to a need brought to their attention by one of the members of the community. A small church of mostly African Americans was trying to complete a sort of community center for the town. The Queer Eye guys became involved in these efforts and they also became involved with the church and one specific family matriarch and her son in the church. Makeovers happened for both of them.

The underlying theme of the whole show seemed to be tolerance and acceptance; that even though there may not be agreement about what's moral and what is not, LGBT people and Christians can still get along and show love to each other and help each other. Some of the Queer eye guys had grown up in the church and had bad experiences. In Gay, Georgia they learned that Christianity can be a positive, loving faith. The church members learned that they needed to love everyone, even if you disagree with them in the hopes of winning them over. There were any number of good things on this particular episode. I am not sure about the other episodes and I will probably not watch them, but this one I can recommend to Christian friends interested in a life of peace and not conflict.