The seventh (and final) season of ABC’s liberal drama Station 19 has begun, and only three episodes in, it’s already pouring on the leftist propaganda. Thursday’s “True Colors” episode centered on “Fabruary-Seattle Winter’s Pride,” which the fire station is participating in and inserted a child into the planning.
One of the show’s many gay characters, Travis (Jay Hayden), asks a smart question…“How many Prides do we need,” adding, “…It feels a little excessive to me. I mean, we're here, we're queer…We don't need to look like a box of Lucky Charms year-round to prove that.”
Travis’s wise insight ends up being borne from internalized shame, as we later find out, which he carries because his father Paul (Robert Curtis Brown) was cruel to him when Travis came out because Paul was secretly gay himself. Of course.
At the parade, Travis introduces his boyfriend Eli (Rob Heaps) to Paul and meets his father’s boyfriend Kyle who he’s in an open relationship with (which they call “ethical non-monogamy”). Paul originally had an affair with Kyle while he was married to Travis’s mother:
Eli: You okay? We don't have to do this if you don't want to.
Travis: No, I want to.
Eli: Yeah?
Travis: I want you to meet him. Also, it'll be a good buffer. Dad!
Paul: Travis! Hey! Guys, come here. How are you? Travis, this is my pastor, Emmanuel. Pastor, this is my son, Travis.
Travis: Nice to meet you. Oh, uh, Dad, this is Eli. Eli, this is my father, Paul Montgomery.
Eli: Hi. It's very nice to meet you, sir.
Paul: Great to meet you, as well. Kyle! Kyle, this is my Travis and his boyfriend.
Eli: Dr. Martin!
Kyle: Eli Stern.
Eli: What are the chances? Dr. Martin's been my dentist for years.
Kyle: Yeah, I'll take full responsibility for that killer smile.
Travis: Thought you said he was a DJ.
Paul: Oh, he is, on the weekends.
Travis: Right.
Kyle: You know, Travis, it is so great to finally meet you. Your dad has told me so much about you.
Travis: Yeah, I think it would have been a bit inappropriate for us to meet back when you two first got together, though, right?
Kyle: Maybe you're right. Better late than never. Excuse me for a second.
Travis: He seems great.
Paul: He is. He is.
Travis: You okay with that?
Paul: With what?
Travis: Dad. That. The guy feeling up your boyfriend. Who is that?
Paul: Oh, yeah. I'm okay with it. We have an understanding.
Travis: Oh, wait. Are you two in an open relationship?
Eli: Travis!
Paul: We like to call it, uh, ethical non-monogamy, but yeah, we are.
Travis: Well, if you have to put "ethical" in front of it...
Kyle: Well, it may be a little unconventional, but it works for us.
Travis: I bet it does.
Eli: Yeah, well, as long as it works for you two. I totally understand the utility of open relationships. I'm such a serial monogamist myself, I could never really do it.
Oh, isn't Travis so intolerant?! How dare he have any moral standards?!
As the parade begins, the show made sure to feature children watching in the crowd as a drag queen dances sultrily and shows off his/her “booty.” Other than that, the parade was very G-rated, unlike real pride parades where fetishes and kinks are on full display to children, as well as body parts they should never be exposed to.
And, of course, they included angry protesters to make it appear that anyone who believes homosexuality is wrong and anyone who is concerned about children being groomed and exposed to vile sexual scenes at real pride parades are all just cruel, violent, hateful bigots:
Andy: I love your rainbow butterflies. Here you go. That is perfect. Alright, you're all set.
Protesters: Let men be men! Make America straight again! Let men be men! Make America straight again!
Protester: Hey, pedo, hands off the kid!
Protesters: Pervert! Pervert!
Andy: What'd you call her? What'd you say? Say it again. I would leave a kid with that woman any day. You? Never.
Sullivan: Andy. Andy, Andy, Andy –
Andy: What, you think that makes you a man?
Sullivan: Andy. Andy.
Andy: Men don't hide behind masks and scream at little kids. You're a coward. Oh, you want to throw something?
Sullivan: Andy. Hey, Captain!
Andy: Throw something again. I dare you.
Sullivan: Captain Herrera! Calm down. You need to calm down.
Protesters: Let men be men! Make America straight again! Let men be men!
Andy: They're just trying to incite fear and scare everyone. Who do they think they are?
Sullivan: Look, you're right, you're right, alright? But we cannot engage.
Andy: Bishop, what's wrong?
Maya: I think I just saw my brother.
Andy: What?
Protesters: Make America straight again!
To be clear, screaming vile words at children is the exact opposite of what anyone who is truly concerned about children would do. And it goes without saying that hate and violence are never okay. But shows like Station 19 have a clear agenda of painting anyone opposed to their way of thinking with the same brush as these raging protesters in the hopes of tarnishing our reputation and diminishing our beliefs.
Meanwhile, when Travis apologizes to Eli for cheating on him twice, Eli responds, “What part are you sorry for? Being a cheater and a hypocrite? Or are you sorry for being a judgmental prick who overcompensates 'cause he's uncomfortable with his own sexuality? I mean, you even chose the most hypermasculine career known to man, to prove yourself…You are a real piece of work and the most repressed man I have ever known. And I work in politics, so that's saying something. But hey...like father, like son, huh?”
Travis complains about Eli’s harsh words to his co-worker Vic (Barrett Doss), who ends up agreeing with Eli. During their discussion, a car backfires, sending everyone at the event into a panic thinking it was gunshots:
Protesters: Let men be men! Make America straight again! Let men be men! Make America straight again!
Travis: I mean, I get what I did was wrong, but where does he, like, get off saying I'm like my father? You know, a man he just met an hour ago. A man whose lifeblood at one point was rampant, internalized and externalized homophobia.
Vic: Okay, so what did you say?
Travis: Well, I mean, I didn't dignify it with a response. But I -- you know, I cheated, and that was terrible. But he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Vic: Okay.
Travis: Okay. Why do you keep saying okay?
Vic: I don't know, Travis. You spent the entire morning complaining about Pride and rainbows, and Herrera had to make you put on that shirt.
Travis: What does that have to do with anything? I don't have issues with masculinity, Vic. I've done drag.
Vic: Yeah. Once. For Halloween.
Travis: Say what you want to say.
Vic: Maybe his delivery was wrong, but he wasn't.
Travis: Oh, no!
Vic: What the hell?!
Security: Just drive. There's an exit up ahead on the left.
Ross: Those weren't gunshots. That was a car backfiring.
Security: You sure about that?
Ross: Of course, I'm sure! I was trained to know the difference. Why weren't you? Stop the car!
Security: Go! Go, go, go!
Back at the firehouse, the crew discusses the protests and claim that gay people are being doxxed, trans women are being harassed and they lament that armed men are showing up at voter drop boxes. Another gay character, Maya (Danielle Savre) is told to go home to yet another gay character, her wife Carina (Stefania Spampinato), and their baby after seeing her brother with the protesters:
Maya: My brother was one of the protesters.
Andy: You don't know that.
Maya: I do. I saw him again without his gaiter. You know, maybe I shouldn't be surprised, given how we grew up. But to see him like that, like one of them, I don't know.
Andy: Go home. Go be with your wife and your baby. That's an order. Okay. We're not doing this. We're not giving them this much power. This is exactly what they want.
Vic: Well, I'd say mission accomplished.
Beckett: I expected it to turn into a circus, but I didn't expect fascists to be part of the show.
Andy: Why can't they just leave other people alone?
Sullivan: Intimidation. That's their one and only tactic.
Ben: It's infuriating. I mean, at what point does the doxxing, the -- the harassment of trans women, the -- the armed men at voter drop boxes, when does it stop? This is what they do. They show up, put everyone on edge so that the slightest provocation sets everyone off.
Andy: There's got to be something we can do. We can't just let them win.
Travis: No, we can't. I have an idea. I just need to call in a favor from my dad.
Umm, wasn’t it WaPo’s liberal reporter Taylor Lorenz who doxxed the woman behind the X account “Libs of TikTok?” *Checks notes* Yes. Yes, it was. Projection, much?
Travis finally realizes he hasn’t been woke enough by the end of the episode and calls his dad to set up a pride dance party at the fire station with Kyle as the DJ. The two share a conversation about how his dad being secretly gay affected Travis:
Paul: Thanks for getting Kyle and me out of there.
Travis: That's the least I can do for acting like such a jerk all day.
Paul: It's not your fault. It's hereditary.
Travis: Maybe we have more in common than I realized.
Paul: That's got to be one of my biggest regrets. Pushed a lot of my hang-ups onto you.
Travis: Dad, we don't have to get into all that.
Paul: I don't think I realized how much it affected you. In my eyes, you were always so brave. As a kid, you were fearless. I remember the day you came out to me. I was terrified. So, I taught you to be ashamed, to bury it deep down, not let anyone see it, like I had always done. That shame you're holding on to... that shame that tells you you can't be your whole imperfect, messy self... That doesn't belong to you. That's mine. And it's time for you to let it go. You're an incredible man, Travis. And I am so proud to be your father. It's good that you did this.
Travis: If they want to be loud, we got to be louder. We really should go dance, Dad.
Paul: Yeah, we really should. Let's go. Come on.
Music: ♪ Release the love, forget the rest…You won't break my soul ♪ ♪ You won't break my soul ♪
