Tell Glee to Stop Promoting Abusive Behavior!

Hello,

I'm writing to inform you that I will no longer be watching Glee. I am doing this because so many of your plot lines are horrifically insensitive to real-world issues and often portray very serious situations that would otherwise be seen as emotionally abusive as romantic. For example, Sam and Mercedes' relationship is solely based on Sam pushing Mercedes in every episode to do something that she doesn't want to do, whether that's talk, sing, whatever. In the past couple of episodes, Finn's entire relationship with Rachel has been based on Finn forcing Rachel to make a snap decision on his proposal, bugging her every five seconds into making a very important decision and then guilt-tripping her when she doesn't have an answer right away. Mr. Schuester's relationship with Emma is incredibly concerning to me also, and has been for some time. Emma's OCD is a disease that she cannot control, and yet Mr. Schuester's attempts to "force" her to heal have been met with positive reactions and outcomes on the show rather than negative. To try to force someone who is mentally ill to heal implies that they have control over their illness, and that if they do not heal that they are a failure. The worst part about all of this is that Glee appears to be trying to portray these creepy, borderline abusive behaviors and characteristics as romantic and/or positive boons rather than as the worst kind of behavior a person can exhibit towards another human being. Guilting your girlfriend into making snap decisions and/or into doing anything else she doesn't want to do is abusive, not romantic. Full stop.

I am also not happy that Finn never caught any slack for outing Santana loudly in a crowded high school hallway. Instead, he was considered a martyr for helping her to "accept herself," and the entire storyline ended with a song and dance number about it. I hate to break it to you, but in real life, outing someone before they're ready to come out usually results in increased bullying, torment, and suicide. And while it's great that the Glee club accepted her in the end, she was not ready to come out, and yet Finn forced her out. And somehow singing a song makes it all okay? I don't think so. How did the writers possibly let that pass as realistic? And now that she's out of the closet, why is the show not showing her and Brittany interacting as a couple? Why is it okay for Kurt and Blaine to kiss and show affection on screen, but not Santana and Brittany? Why the lesbian double standard? This show has become hopelessly inconsistent.

Bottom line, if you want to keep your viewers, you need to start giving the heterosexual males on this show consequences for their actions. And you need to start adding some reality to your storylines. Because let's face it, most LGBTQ teens who are forced out of the closet probably don't feel like doing a song and dance number afterwards. They usually feel like doing something much worse.