It's not often a story prompts three different emotional responses from the same reader, in this case me, but the one I'm about to bring you did exactly that. Apparently, Dancing With The Stars offered a spot on the upcoming season to Portia de Rossi. Unfortunately, she declined, and producers have now moved forward searching for a replacement. Had she accepted, an ABC insider reveals, she would have been the first contestant to dance with a same sex partner in the show's history.
According to Popeater, the program thought conservative viewers would take lesbian dancing from Portia, but without her, they're going to move on, at least this season, with all male-female pairs. Did you get all that? Excitement to confusion to disappointment.
Portia de Rossi is awesome. She was great on Arrested Development, and she's an affable, engaging personality. She would be perfect on Dancing With The Stars, hence my excitement. But apparently, she would have been dancing with a woman? That's where the confusion comes in. Let me be the first to say, I am all things gay rights. I'm in favor of marriage, adoption and any other rights any citizen has. It's an absolute disgrace we live in a country that still stereotypes and thinks others less than, but it still confuses me why Portia would be paired with a woman.
Same sex dancing competitions do exist, but in a format where one is judged against all boy-girl pairs, it seems strange that anyone, let alone non-professional viewers, would be able to accurately compare and rate same sex dancing partners. It seems pretty clear since Portia declined that offer that she didn't ask to be potentially paired with a woman. In fact, a lot of openly gay dancers willingly choose to partner with members of the opposite sex. It really makes the whole thing seem more like a publicity stunt than forward progress. This is where the final emotion: sadness comes into play.
The whole point of equal rights is to treat everyone the same. Everyone gets the same rules, and under them, we all compete for success and happiness. Previous openly gay contestant Lance Bass actually said he was excited to be dancing with his female partner and had no thoughts or intentions of dancing with a man. Why would Portia de Rossi be any different? Dancing With The Stars isn't about sex or dating. It's about watching famous people do beloved and iconic dances. I don't really understand how it has anything to do with sexuality. If this was couples skate at the roller rink or a same sex dancing competition, I would understand, but it seems strange to judge one by a different set or rules than another.
Am I wrong? If you know more about competitive same sex dancing or can shine a light on how this would work, please chime in below. I'm still confused. After collecting my thoughts, that's the one emotion I'll take away from this story, at least until someone sets me straight. No pun intended.
