A treasured national tradition is getting a little less family-friendly this year.
Americans looking forward to the quintessential national holiday are getting a rude awakening with word that the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan is going to showcase more than street versions of musical numbers and marching bands from around the country.
The transgender agenda will be taking center stage for some of the screen time, and one of Hollywood’s biggest liberals will be the featured performer.
According to The Associated Press, Cher, the woman who recently made headlines by declaring she would leave the United States if former President Donald Trump is re-elected is supposed to entertain a country after regularly insulting the half that supports Trump.
The AP report sees nothing unusual about that. And apparently neither do the parade organizers. It will be interesting to see how the television ratings bear out their complacency.
Breitbart News reported last week that “non-binary” actors from two Broadway shows — “& Juliet” and “Shucked” — will be part of the parade festivities.
The show “& Juliet” is inspired — as viewers might guess — by the Shakespearean classic “Romeo and Juliet,” but explores what Juliet’s life might have been like had she not committed suicide at the end of the story. (At least that’s the way the synopsis is described on the theater-oriented site Stageagent.com. Feel free to go see it and find out if that’s true.)
A jukebox musical, it’s bound to have some catchy tunes, but it’s one of the roles that’s likely to garner all the attention on Thanksgiving. The part of the non-binary “May” is played by Justin David Sullivan, according to Breitbart.
Sullivan is a man who confusingly enough identifies as he/she/they, and apparently feels so strongly about it that he took himself/herself/themself out of the running for a Tony on the grounds that the awards are gender specific, according to Breitbart.
Meanwhile, “Shucked” is a fantasy fable from corn country (literally, according to The New York Times) that includes a female character named Lulu who is played by a man named Alex Newell.
Newell also identifies with “he/she/they,” according to Breitbart — though that didn’t stop him from accepting the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is no stranger to the presence of openly gay performers.
In 2020, the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps became the “openly LGBTQ group to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” as The Atlantic reported at the time.
But a marching ensemble of horns and drums is unlikely to be all that different from another marching ensemble of horns and drums just by virtue of being gay — with the possible exception of slightly more stylish uniforms.
Two Broadway actors, open and outspoken, might be a little bit different.
And it’s a rock-solid bet that the commentary from the fine, liberal-leaning folks at NBC is going to make a bigger deal out of Broadway actors than it would about strolling musicians.
The news about Cher and the “non-binary” parade features drew plenty of critics on social media. Here’s a sampling:
No thanks to Macy’s Transgender Day Parade—The parade coverage was already lousy. They wouldn’t hardly show the floats. Now it is transgender hour? We are going to make some new traditions and leave TV off. https://t.co/U6Kd3FS3O9 via @BreitbartNews
— Conservative from Boulder (@a4waystop) November 3, 2023
There has to be some other old hag without the messiah complex out there?
— K passenger (@Ca37071871K) November 5, 2023
Be sure to have the kids gather round the TV for another round of woke family brainwashing.
https://t.co/YbTdtig1fw— KidShelleen (@FranksBrother) November 2, 2023
It was inevitable, really, that the left would leap at the chance to commandeer Thanksgiving, the national holiday that predates the establishment of the United States, and sums up the country so well.
It’s a holiday dedicated to faith in God, and gratitude for the many blessings — material and spiritual — that living in a nation dedicated to freedom will afford. And that makes it a horrifying target.
Most American families understand that. Even if the Macy’s Parade organizers don’t.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.