Remember that beautiful US Weekly magazine coverphoto that we got to see last week that introduced to the world Elton John and husband David Furnish‘s newborn baby boy Zachary Jackson Levon? Yeah, well a grocery store chain in Arkansas called Harps believes that coverphoto of the happy family should be censored so as to “protect young” shoppers from seeing it.
Harps – a grocery store chain in Arkansas – appears to have censored last week’s Us Weekly Magazine cover featuring Elton John and David Furnish’s new baby. The above photo was brought to CoverAwards by earsucker, which picked it up from this tweet. I’ve made numerous calls to the chains PR rep – who so far refuses to comment on the chain’s ridiculous behavior. What I’ve been told is the company has received 50 calls this morning alone – and now the PR director is only accepting voice mails. I also spoke to an individual inside the actual Arkansas Harps’ store – who did confirm that the cover was at one point covered – which confirms the actual above picture is real. Want to express your outrage? Call 870-425-6556.
As unsurprised by this kind of homophobia in this country, I am always saddened by it. It is completely dumbfounding to me how the sight of a happy family could be considered harmful to anyone:
While our country continues to make great strides in equal treatment of all, this is a sober reminder that we still have so far to go. We don’t have Harps stores here in SoCal but if I did live in a city where Harps operates, you can be assured that I would never spend a penny in their stores ever again. IMHO, young Harps shoppers do need to be protected, tho … protected from this sort of intolerance and ignorance.
UPDATE: Harps Grocery Store issued a statement announcing their reversal over the decision to censor this issue of US Weekly. For me, it is very important for the company to publicly acknowledge their wrongdoing. I sincerely hope something like this will never happen again … but, we’ll just have to see about that.
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Ugh…how disgusting & childish!
Arkansas is famous for its backwards family values.
this is DEPRESSING…they are such an adorable family (their baby is SO cute)!
OMG how sad… Or in Dutch: HOE BELACHELIJK!!….
Like it could harm a child to see a beautifel picture of proud and happy men with their newborn child…..
Makes me want to fly down there and take all of those “family shield” covers off.. Ah, but this is the state that gave us Wal-Mart…
I wish people would just embrace a loving family, in all shapes, colors, orientations, etc… If a child is being raised in a loving, secure, happy environment, shouldn’t we all be celebrating that instead of covering it???
This is so sad, I forgot that this homophobia exists because most people around me are open-minded…so much still has to change.
Wow…that’s just sad. Seeing 2 men and a baby is going to ooh completely corrupt the youth of Arkansas. Insane.
I think redneck values are much worse than seeing two men together!
Right?
There are so many ‘things’ one could say about Arkansas.
Most of them are just as ignorant as those ‘shields.’
:) Right!
@ Mr. Gyllenhaal: Beautifully put. perfection.
Arkansas is smack dab in the middle of the bible belt, but there are large gay communities in this state. Especially Eureka Springs which has a Harps as the main grocery store. Wonder if they are covering this magazine there? If so, it wont be for long, the people there will not take this!!
Just when you start thinking that things may be turning around something like this happens.. ugg!
How sad.
this is just disturbing and pathetic. it makes me so angry i hope they take those covers off and that lots of people complain to let the store know how stupid their actions were.when i go to stores there are magazine covers with far worse and sexualized images that are put where kids can see them and here a picture of a happy family sharing their joy with the world is covered and called offensive.i feel sorry for people who think kids need to be protected from such a loving picture.
A few of my friends and I have been discussing this and here’s our conclusion:
1) So very sad that this is happening in America, it makes me cringe as an American.
2) I think some of the magazines with mostly naked women on the cover could cause more damage to ‘young shoppers’ – hyper sexualized fantasies and unattainable body figures cause a lot more damage I think to developing youth than a picture of 3 happy faces.
I agree.. I remember as a kid being more disturbed by the hunting magazines w/ guns and dead animals all over them. THOSE aren’t covered. :-(
@ Kelis: Totally! Those frightened me too! :oD
Exactly. :( I much rather my son see a picture of a happy family on the cover than a airbrushed woman with her silicone breasts hanging out.
Well said.
This is disgusting. Sometimes I am very ashamed to live in a country where “Bible belt” states exist. There is a huge section of this country with backwards and twisted values.
Trent this is not directed at you but rather at some of the responders to this post. I have seen the words “ignorant” & “redneck” used to classify “most people” in this state. When words like this are flippantly used to characterize an entire state & the “Bible Belt” area of the country it is just as much of a discrimination as what this store did. I happen to live in the Bible Belt area of the country & I can say that one stores views do not necesarily speak for the entire area of the country. Therefor I see it as almost hypocritical & offensive to use these terms as a generalization of all of the people who live there.
Sorry, I just get tired of hearing that everyone where I live is a redneck, myself included.
@Sarah… You’re so right. I apologize for my comments. So not cool to criticize the very behavior that I was doing. blah.. :-( I for one should know better since most of my family lives in the South and they’re not like that….
All I said was redneck I didn’t direct it at any specific part of the population. This kind of ignorance is nothing more than redneck ideology. That is a simple fact. I have family in the “Bible Belt” who are christians and they are neither rednecks or jesus freaks! They would never condone this kind of behavior. So I stick behind what I said because I wasn’t talking about the whole state.
Thank you, Sarah R! As a fellow “Bible Belt” resident, I completely agree with what you are saying. There are closed minded people everywhere – today it happened to be in Arkansas (which, by the way, isn’t even considered the “real” south by those of us in NC, SC, GA, TN, etc). Lets focus on the issue at hand – that we are all appalled by this action – and stay away from gross generalizations about people residing in different parts of the country.
I agree that generalizations of an area is not cool. Unfortunately, I once lived, for a time, in the Ozarks, and I am all too familiar with the certain hive mindset of the population. Not everyone I encountered was a closed-minded bigot, but the vast majority of the society seemed to be. The baptist and other holy roller churches bred fear of outsiders, and anything perceived to threaten their way of life was eschewed. If I lived there today? I would go into every Harps store within a reasonable range, and complain directly to the manager about this. This type of hatred will be on display until people use their voices to get the message across that this is unacceptable and not something that is wanted. There is a reason the management of that establishment censored that cover. It is because they think that’s what their shoppers want. You have an opportunity here to let them know it’s not the case.
I noticed that the photo is ONLY of the covered US Weekly, so I can’t help but wonder if the other gossip rags are covered as well. It’s quite possible that this chain covers not only porno mags, but gossip rags as well, and someone decided to snap a shot of only the US Weekly to make it look like it’s a homophobic act. Just something to think about.
While this is terrible, can we not ascribe the behaviour of one store or one employee in a store to an entire state? Not all of Arkansas is ignorant. Not all “Bible Belt” communities are “backwards and (have) twisted values”….
It makes us no better than them if we start denigrating and vilifying an entire group of people based on the actions of a few.
So I called. I say “I want to complain about your grocery store censoring your magazine with gay people on the cover”
The woman on the other end says “And the problem is?”
I’m like “It’s 2011. Apparently you haven’t heard….”
Then she tries to deny that they are censoring the magazines….
BOOO
@KT — Wow :(
How this cover could in anyway be considered offensive is a complete and total mystery to me, but what I have determined is that Arkansas deems a photo of a happy gay couple sharing their joy with the world and proudly showing off their newborn son as being unsuitable for children. We must remember though that this is the home state of the Duggar Family, a family who is famous for having a huge family because that is apparently as they like to say the path the God has chosen for them. I am not a religious person but in my opinion God chose this to be the time when Elton and David should be blessed with a child and all the narrow minded homophobic people put their just need to come to the realization that the traditional family is not the only type of family out there, and any family has the right to exist all anyone should care about is that this little baby is loved which he quite obviously is.
As far as I know there are no Harps stores here in Canada but I do know that if there was there is no way in hell I would step foot in there.
Arkansas did not chose anything. One store did. You are making things worse by blaming an entire state based on the actions of one store.
I am also Canadian and will happily boycott the store with you, but to place the blame for this on the entire state is a little irresponsible.
@canaussiegirl – I think I just worded my comment a little wrong when I wrote it. Of course the entire population of one state cannot be lumped together and I would hope that the majority of that population would be just as outraged as we are. I thought my use of the line “all the narrow minded homophobic people” narrowed it down a little more but I can see how the comment could have been misconstrued.
This is so sad, if it happens as pictured… I would like to think we’ve come a long ways as American… but it just shows, we all have a lot more work to do, and i genuinely believe that things will get better and people more accepting with each generation born…
That being said; i wouldn’t put it past someone to have taken the shield from a porn mag and throw it in front of the us weekly mag and snap a pic either.
@blaqfury — They sell porn mags at checkout registers in grocery stores?
I didn’t realize it was a checkout counter… I thought it was in the magazine section like most grocery stores have by the card section. At least in my grocery store, they sell all types of magazines in that section, some with blocked covers…
Like I said, if its genuine, i stand by my above statement, but i interned at a broadcast affiliate years ago and I’ve seen with my own eyes, them do slimey stuff just to make a news story… so i wouldn’t put it past anybody…
^^ made me laugh ^^
however, i do see stores put those in front of Cosmo. a magazine that puts the exact same picture on their cover month after month. celebrity female with long wind-blown hair, wearing a dress, with one hand hanging by her side, one hand on her hip, brightly colored background. every.single.month.
That’s embarrassing. Harps Grocery Store should be ashamed of themselves.
Wow. The cover is nothing but positive and far from harmful. The store’s behavior is disgusting.
Terrible. They should be ashamed of themselves.
ban that stupid store chain!!!
Is anyone going to comment on the HORRIBLE grammar on that shield? “Family Shield.” (It’s a title with a period… or it’s an incomplete sentence with improper capitalization.) “To protect young Harps shoppers.” (That makes two incomplete sentences on this sign.)
@Kerry!! You’re my new best friend! That’s hilarious! And yes, we should be protecting our children from bad grammar!! hahahaha!! oh you gave me a much needed laugh!!!!
This is absolutely ridiculous.
I am sure Us weekly is less than impressed either that their cover is being hidden. that is so bad. If I ever came across a Harps grocery store I know I would rather starve than be supportive of their backward ideals
I wonder if the store covers tabloids/magazines that feature women being half naked? I doubt it.
Shame on them.
@CHASE – Ditto, I was thinking the same thing. So it’s ok to portray women as purely sexual objects by posing them on the covers of magazines with next to nothing on, or by obsessing over this actor or actress’ sex life, nose job, etc? I’m way more offended by that than by two ADULTS, men, women, whatever, who are in love, committed to each other and who have made the decision to become parents RESPONSIBLY. Jeez louise..
Also, WHY do 145 ppl like this story?! I think that’s even more shocking.
@CHASE — I think they LIKE that this horrible act is being exposed for the hatred it is.
I sure hope so, Trent! Because sometimes it makes you wonder… Since the whole “like” is open interpretation.
Okay, why do people concern themselves with something that will never affect them? How will Elton John and David Furnish ever affect Harps? Or their shoppers? They’re not HURTING people. They’re just peacefully living their lives!! Harps is wasting money with that stupid piece of plastic. Jebus…
give me a break! i’m glad that my family doesn’t need a shield.
what’s more appalling, is the fact that the “shield” is actually shielding the parents from having to come to terms with it and explain it to the kids. the kids probably couldn’t care less. I find almost all kids are open to different lifestyles, colors/races. it’s the parents f*cked up views and beliefs that screw the kids up. Rediculous. that store ought to be ashamed. Boo!!!!
Perhaps they put the shield over the cover to protect kids from seeing Elton’s scary-ass face. If I was little and I saw that shit, I’d have nightmares for weeks.
And what protects the rest of Trent’s reader from you? You are uglier than Elton could ever be because you have an ugly soul There’s no plastic surgery for that.
Poor Elton and his little family they don’t deserve to be covered up like that! =(
This is truly sick. I can’t believe something like that would happen in 2011. Like others have said I doubt they are putting shields around the half-naked women that are exposed on the other covers.
Omg I think that is absolutely ridiculous, it’s a newborn baby and his parents for goodness sake, Like it’s going to hurt some kid to see a loving family.
Whatttt? Ridiculous.
This is so ridiculous and really saddens me.
I think America is too sensitive most of the time…I mean, this is ridiculous!
i think censorship is wrongo.
but, im guessing that this store uses that little sign on every us weekly issue, not just this one. how quickly do you think they had those made?
the grocery store i frequent uses those signs to cover the cosmo magazines each month, no matter what is on the cover. (and im in oregon)
if it truly was for this magazine cover only that cracks my heart, but before we freak out and yell ‘homophobia’ lets get all the facts……
maybe we should just be yelling ‘censorship!’……
Did you see the CNN article last night that said the store reversed the decision?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/01/26/elton.john.covered.up/index.html?iref=obnetwork
Hooray! thanks for sharing the link. Good for them, for fixing this. A step in the right direction…
@Kerry — Yes, I added the link as an update. It’s a very happy update :D
Disgusting.
The matter of US Weekly being covered was short lived. Jennifer Huddleston who wanted her 15 minutes of fame and got it, took the photograph. She snapped the photo of the covered magazine a short time before it was removed! Don’t get your panties in a wad! You people are going up in flames over nothing! Get over it! It was taken care of in a short time. I know, I live here. We probably have more gay people here than you do in your city!