Wal-Mart may be the country's biggest single retailer, but I doubt that's because of its status with the gay crowd.
Not to deal in stereotypes, but I don't know many gay and lesbian couples who enjoy shopping for hunting rifles and painfully unfashionable housewares.
Which is why it's surprising that a Christian activist group known as the American Family Association is urging its followers to boycott the chain for allegedly promoting a homosexual lifestyle.
The crux of the group's discontent has to do with Wal-Mart's sale of the acclaimed gay love story "Brokeback Mountain," which was released on DVD earlier this month.
The association figures that allowing the flick to be sold in the country's best-loved department store will send a message that being gay and riding horses is something besides a perversion.
I guess there's a fear that if Americans accept gay cowpokes, we can expect plagues of frogs, eternal damnation and widespread outbreaks of spontaneous disco dancing.
The real problem with this misguided attempt to force the gay genie back into his artfully decorated, mid-century vase is this: If the association truly wants to prevent their fellow countrymen from embracing gay lifestyles, they should encourage people to see "Brokeback Mountain."
I can testify that one viewing of this cloying, overly sentimental, pretentious movie will convince anyone, regardless of religion or sexual preference, that gay people are so dull and whiny, they're a threat to absolutely no one.
If you're considering picking up a copy of "Brokeback" let me spare you two hours of numbing boredom and a good $25.
The plot deals with two sodbusters who go to a campground every so often to make whoopee in a grimy canvas tent. They spend the next 90 minutes or so speaking in a tone similar to the weird, grunting guy in "Sling Blade," while getting all weepy about having to do anything besides play cowboy.
The whole affair is about as thrilling or subversive as shopping at Wal-Mart for a new tub of saddle soap.
So lighten up American Family Association. "Brokeback Mountain" itself is enough to prove that the lives of gay people are no more interesting or weird than anyone else.
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