Stephen Colbert's gay mayor skit with Mayor Johnny Cummings of Vicco, Ky., is being hailed by one reviewer as "perhaps the single best segment ever seen on The Colbert Report" and has gone viral.
The segment aired Tuesday night and was an installment of Colbert's "People Who Are Destroying America" series.
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The satirical Comedy Central host claims "America's traditional small town morals are under attack from within" by an openly gay small town mayor in rural Kentucky.
The segment highlights the efforts of Cummings who successfully passed a city-wide ordinance that banned discrimination against LGBT residents, ensuring they receive fair treatment at local businesses, cannot be evicted from their houses, and are never denied employment opportunities because of their sexual orientation.
Cummings, who is also a local hair dresser, is shown in the video to be extremely popular among the majority of the residents.
Cummings' popularity among the local "yokels," as the clip refers to them, shatters the stereotype that small town Americans are anti-gay.
"Americans count on small towns to uphold traditional morality," the video narrator says as a white-bearded man holds the American flag and another drinks a shot of bourbon in a dimly-lit bar.
"But Mayor Cummings is using his office to implement the gay agenda," the narration continues as menacing music plays in the background.
The segment perverts a series of statements by Cummings and his supporters about "improvements" he instituted around town since becoming mayor, labeling each with a big red "gay" stamp.
The segment then introduces a villain, local Pastor Truman Hurt, who says, "we should be able to fire [gays], deny them service, and deny them housing."
Despite his position, the pastor claims to "have nothing against gays."
"I don't like their lifestyle, I don’t like them trying to push it on me and my family and the community," the pastor adds. "In other words I think they ought to go back in the closet where they belong."
Colbert asks, "But how has Mayor Cummings so quickly destroyed the values of these salt of the earth inbred yokels?"
The answer, according to The Colbert Report, is he has "the law on [his] side."
The segment ends with testimony from Cummings' friend, a local police officer named Vaughn.
"Yea I know he's gay and yea he's my best friend. And yea we've been accused of being lovers," Vaughn said. "He's been through all four of my marriages, that boy knows more about me than most people in my life. And I love him like a brother and I'll take care of him just like that, just like a brother."
Cummings says that other town officials in Kentucky have approached him, expressing interest in passing "fairness" ordinances. The pastor makes a final plea warning that gay men, "without the Lord Jesus Christ," are going to hell.
In its review of the segment,
DangerousMinds.net described it as "perhaps the single best segment ever seen on The Colbert Report."
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