“She’s Leslie Knope, and she wants to recruit you:” Leslie Knope and the Gay Penguins
Pawnee Zoo, 2009
Pawnee, Indiana. A town with conservative values, a long running feud with Eagleton, an obesity problem, and cherished town icons such as Lil Sebastian. Pawnee lies ninety miles from Indianapolis, though at times it feels like Pawnee is farther away and perhaps its’ own country. The town overall comes across as being quirky and odd like the residents and the town’s unique history. Pawnee is by no means the largest or most prestigious town in Indiana except according to one individual.
“Look at them. They’re just in their own little penguin love bubble. I guess that’s what it’s like when you meet your mate and know you’re gonna be together forever.”
Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), waffle lover and parks enthusiast, believes Pawnee, Indiana to be the best city in all of Indiana and possibly the world. Leslie Knope works for the Parks and Recreational Department as Deputy Parks Director. Born and raised in Pawnee, despite minor technicalities, Leslie works daily and often nightly to make Pawnee a town that thrives in every way Leslie believes it too. With her high energy, ambition, and optimism, Leslie trusts unlike her counterpart Ron Swanson, that despite government having its’ flaws, it is the solution to all.
Promotional events are held frequently throughout the world, and the fictitious town of Pawnee, Indiana is no exception. At the beginning of Season 2 of Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope decides she will spend the summer promoting the Pawnee Zoo. The promotional events she puts on are themed based on the different zoo animals: a parrot receives a birthday party, a chimpanzee graduates from college. Leslie’s events are cute, corny, and harmless. Well her events are harmless except for when the chimpanzee threw his feces out to the spectators instead of his college graduation hat.
“Parrots live a very long time, so we had a birthday party for a parrot that turned sixty.”
“Chimpanzees are very smart so we had them graduate from college and they like to fling their feces, so we were hoping they would fling their hats, but they just flung their feces.”
“We are going to try to give them a marriage ceremony, because they mate for life.”
The last promotional event for the summer consisted of a wedding ceremony for penguins. The audience was packed with an assortment of children, parents, and zoo employees. Leslie and April dressed up as a bride and a groom to act as officiators for the wedding. After the “I do’s” were said, a zoo employee pointed out to an audience member that the two penguins were both of the male gender leaving a dumbfounded Leslie Knope. Unknowingly, she had married two male penguins, and caused an innocent event to spiral out of control.
“Not those two! They are both boy penguins! Tux and Flipper are both boys, so you should have pronounced them husband and husband, technically.”
Tux and Flipper, the penguins in Pawnee Zoo, were based on two real life penguins. At the San Francisco Zoo reside the two penguins named Harry and Pepper, who are the inspiration for Tux and Flipper. Harry and Pepper nested together for six years, and even cared for an egg together. 1
Parks and Recreation producer states, “Greg Daniels and Mike Schur were looking for topics that could be in the season opener. I think the gay marriage issue was still hot, in L.A. for sure, and was discussed in the room. One of our writers talked about the two male penguins in the San Francisco Zoo. That seemed like a good way in and was also connected to Leslie’s character.” 2
Unfortunately, the penguin couple split up shortly before the airing of Pawnee Zoo. The two were not the only same-sex penguin couple at the San Francisco Zoo though. There were reports of at least three other same-sex penguin couples at the time.
By marrying the two same-sex penguins Leslie accidently takes a stand on gay marriage, which causes uproar in Pawnee. Through her accidental stand, Leslie becomes idolized by the gay community, and hated by the general pubic. April, April’s boyfriend, and April’s boyfriend’s boyfriend meet up with Leslie. The whole situation might be kind of confusing as it is not the normal, but as Leslie Knope says, “The thing about youth culture is I don’t understand it.”
“Derek is gay, but he’s straight for me and gay for Ben, and Ben is really gay for Derek, and I hate Ben.”
The trio calls Leslie their hero, and invites her to be the guest of honor at the gay bar in town. A flattered Leslie tries to set the record straight telling them it was just a misunderstanding, and she does not take stands. April hands Leslie a poster to sway her opinion modeled after Obama’s Hope campaign, but with Knope written across the bottom.
The poster parallels Leslie Knope to President Obama, which just so happens to be Leslie’s dream title. This comparison places Leslie in the same category of power and influence as the president. Leslie has had a major impact on the community through her mistaken stand for gay marriage. People in the community look up to her for inspiration now and commend her for the change she has set in motion. Ironically, at the time Obama did not support gay marriage.
At the party thrown in Leslie’s honor at the gay bar in town The Bulge, Leslie is called up on stage to give a speech. When Leslie arrives on stage, April yells to the crowd, “She’s Leslie Knope, and she’s wants to recruit you.” Leslie tries to quiet the excited crowd for she is still in denial that she has taken a stand.
“She’s Leslie Knope, and she wants to recruit you.”
The line April yells to the crowd is a quote from Harvey Milk: “My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you.” 3 Milk was a gay rights activist as well as the first openly gay elected official in the United States. 4 Here Leslie is being called a gay rights activist, although she did not intend to take this path; after all public servants are not supposed to take stands. At first Leslie seems wary of the title, but later embraces it. Leslie even calls herself “queen of the gays.”
Several individuals in Pawnee do not like Leslie’s newfound gay activist role. Leslie is asked both publically and privately to resign from her position. On The Joan Callamezzo Show, Leslie is asked by individuals of all ages to annul the marriage and resign from her position. If a same-sex penguin marriage in town caused this much dishevel, then the backlash from a same-sex human marriage would be unimaginable.
“I just wanna say I love the zoo and the zoo is really fun. Thank you, that’s really sweet. And I think you should resign.”
Pawnee Zoo was aired in 2009. At the time only five states had legalized same-sex marriage whereas in 2014 thirty-six states had legalized same-sex marriage. 2009 saw the repeal of Maine’s State Law allowing same-sex marriage, and the uphold by California on Proposition 8’s Ban on same-sex marriage. 5 The United States was still greatly opposed to gay marriage during the writing of Pawnee Zoo, so the position Leslie found herself in could have been a reality.
The most admirable trait of Leslie Knope within the episode as a whole is how she does not back down on her stance for gay marriage. Even though her stance was unintentional, she stands by it, and even defends it. When Leslie is attacked on live television by a representative from the Society of Family Stability, Leslie holds her own ground. Leslie firmly believes she did not do anything wrong, and her goal was only to promote the zoo through a cute event. Ultimately, this is who Leslie Knope is. Leslie strives to make Pawnee a better place and to have fun in the process.
“Last time I checked I didn’t murder anyone or have an affair or do drugs, but I apologize. I apologize for having fun and for making something cute.”
At the end of the episode Leslie takes the penguin couple to Iowa. Iowa was one of the aforementioned states in 2009 where gay marriage was legal. In Iowa, Leslie believes the penguin couple will have the greatest chance for happiness, and possibly a water park detour on the way.
The goal of Season 2 of Parks and Recreation was to touch on real world issues, but overall to just bring more of a storyline to the show. 6 The penguin marriage starts the trend for the season mixing comedy and real life. The United States begins to slowly catch up with the ideology present in Pawnee Zoo soon after the airing of the episode. In 2010, Obama changed his position on gay marriage for the first time since he ran for a Senate seat in 2004. Also in this timeline, gay rights activists began to receive more attention in the media. Unlike Pawnee, the United States did not require a gay penguin marriage to set a movement in motion.
Notes:
1. George Nikitin, “Male penguin couple splits over widowed female,” CBC News, accessed January 31, 2015, http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/male-penguin-couple-splits-over-widowed-female-1.821587.
2. Colin McEvoy, “Parks and Recreation screenwriter Norm Hiscock discusses the NBC show’s comeback, gay penguin marriage,” WebCite, accessed February 4, 2015, http://www.webcitation.org/5wBfopMv8.
3. Dana Roc Productions, “The Hope Speech: Harvey Milk,” From Dana’s Guest, accessed January 31, 2015, http://www.danaroc.com/guests_harveymilk_122208.html.
4. “Biography of Harvey Milk,” The Harvey Milk Foundation, accessed February 1, 2015, http://milkfoundation.org/about/harvey-milk-biography/.
5. “Gay Marriage Timeline,” ProCon.org, accessed January 30, 2015, http://gaymarriage.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000030.
6. Alan Sepinwall, “Parks and Recreation: Interviewing co-creator Mike Schur,” WebCite, accessed February 4, 2015, http://www.webcitation.org/5uFRGdduQ.
