Paris Hilton has people up in arms, and it’s not even about her plans to release new music! Ultra conservative group One Million Moms has just discovered a Hilton Hotels & Resorts commercial from last October that Paris starred in, and the group is steaming mad that the hotel chain is promoting a gay agenda. Their evidence? Everyone in the ad is wearing pink! Do you think One Million Moms is even aware that Paris has the stereotypical “perfect” family: a husband, baby boy, and baby girl? Welp, doesn’t matter. The group is so deeply offended by Hilton hotels “forcing” the LGBTQ+ lifestyle on children and families that they were left with no option but to start a Facebook petition:
The commercial features a bunch of people in pink suits and dresses saying things like [deep sigh] “Hilton Honors slays” and “All these perks. We’re sliving.” The latter is of course, a reference to Paris Hilton’s portmanteau of “slay” and “living” — and yes, the Hilton heiress herself makes an appearance, with a signature “That’s hot.” (It’s also worth noting that “slay,” like much of what we consider to be LGBTQ+ slang and culture, comes from Black and Latine ballroom communities.)
Last week, One Million Moms — a subsidiary of the Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group American Family Association — posted a petition against the commercial to its Facebook page. The text of the petition claims that “Hilton is attempting to normalize the LGBTQ lifestyle with its liberal advertising choices.”
“The hotel chain is obviously pushing the LGBTQ agenda with this commercial, which depicts individuals, couples, and families, all in obviously gender-confused roles,” the petition reads, adding that “the ad features actors portraying multiple homosexual and transgender characters.”
So far, over 11,000 people have signed the petition, which also includes a message directly to the Hilton itself, stating, “I am not buying into your social agenda that pushes the gay lifestyle. Your commercial featuring a homosexual couple and men in drag offends me, and it also offends many other conservative consumers. I disagree with the LGBTQ agenda you are forcing on families and children.” It’s unclear where the supposed men in drag are, considering that the ad features more masc individuals in suits and more femme individuals in dresses. But we digress.
Oh good grief. Not only are these people bigoted homophobes, they’ve also completely misunderstood the premise of the ad. The point isn’t that the men are in drag — which they’re not, for what it’s worth; they’re in pink suits with (gasp!) long-haired wigs. Except for two men who are in pink tracksuits instead, and who must be the “homosexual couple” One Million Moms cites, even though all we see is them standing next to each other for about two seconds out of the 30 second ad. But again, the point isn’t to make these men feminine. The joke underpinning the whole thing is that everyone is Paris! Every pink-clad person is a Paris, with deadpan one liners to boot! There is indeed confusion afoot, just not about gender (at least not in the commercial).
Now after having viewed the ad on a loop all I can think about is the opening number to Funny Face. The first time I saw the movie, one of my mother’s gay best friends prefaced it by telling me “the song you are about to hear is the gay national anthem.” Say it with me now: Think Pink!
