Subject: MEDIAlert! - 01.31.97 ["A"]
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 09:19:19 -0500 (EST)

----------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX:  "MEDIAlert!" for 31 JAN 97 
(Please note:  Parts "A" and "B" are posted separately; this post contains
Part "A" only)

["A"]

-ITEM 1:  "Don't Ask, Don't Television"  [Dallas Independent School District;
Getting Personal; Montgomery County Public Schools; Shades of Grey].

-ITEM 2:  "Rating the Ratings"  [Murphy Brown; TV-PG; TV-14; Jack Valenti;
AFA; FCC].

-ITEM 3:  "Reporting Homophobia"  [Esquire; Journal of Abnormal Psychology].

["B"]

-ITEM 4:  "Holiday Sins"  [Holiday Inn; Super Bowl].

-ITEM 5:  "Media/Briefs"  [More Tales of the City; Alternate Sources; All
Over Me; Chasing Amy; Kiss Me, Guido; Newsday; Gay Teen's Pen Pal Connection;
EuroBoy].

-ITEM 6:  "Web Watch" [The Current News; Lesbian.org].
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[Part "A"]

M   E   D   I   A    l    e    r    t    !
___________________________

January 17-31       Al Kielwasser

[1]

D O N 'T  A S K ,  D O N ' T  T E L E V I S I O N

It seems that homophobic censorship is par for the course at the nation's
high schools.  Maryland school officials recently refused to lift their ban
on the broadcast of a student-produced talk show, which featured a robust
discussion of same-sex marriage.  In Texas, like-minded censors canceled a
similar student production because it included an interview with a gay man in
drag.

According to the Associated Press (Jan. 23), "a Dallas school official pulled
the plug on a student-produced television show that featured a man in a dress
discussing his homosexuality."  The AP reports that:  "Robert Hinkle, an
official with the Dallas Independent School District, said he made the
decision because 'maybe there was a constituency out there that wasn't
prepared maturely for accepting this information.'  School officials are
[currently] crafting guidelines to regulate the programs students broadcast
over a school cable channel."

The students' series -- "Getting Personal" -- was terminated in December,
following production of the episode addressing homosexuality.  That episode
was produced by Lincoln High School Student Tserilyn Tse, "with the approval
of her teacher, parents and principal" (AP, Jan. 23).

In an interview with Dallas TV station WFAA, Tse told reporters:  "I didn't
do that show because I personally like gays or I hate gays; I did this show
because I want you to know more."  "From what I understand," Tse added,
"education is basically teaching somebody how to go out and get the knowledge
for themselves.''

In a similar case, educational TV has also been censored at Montgomery Blair
High School in Maryland.  On January 9, Montgomery County school chief Paul
Vance upheld a ban against broadcasting a student-produced talk show, which
featured a discussion of same-sex marriage.  The episode would have aired as
part as part of a monthly series -- "Shades of Grey" -- which is regularly
carried on one of the school district's two cable channels.

Like all episodes of "Shades of Grey," the same-sex marriage program was
produced by students at Montgomery Blair High School's television station --
WBNC-TV.  Programs in the series have tackled a range of social issues, from
gun control to female circumcision, without similar incident. 

In a 14-page report on the matter, prepared at Vance's behest, the school
district evasively concludes that the same-sex marriage episode failed to
meet "appropriate technical or content standards for an educational
television channel."  In announcing his decision, Vance upheld the objections
of Barbara Wood, program manager, and Joseph Villani, director of the school
system's cable operations.

Wood said decided to yank the broadcast because a gay panelist "brought up
the issue of religion and God in a very heated and controversial manner.  We
have to be extremely careful about not airing programs that have strong
religious overtones."  For his part, Villani felt the episode featured "too
much advocacy" and , he also told students, the subject was simply not
"appropriate" for an educational TV station.

The topic of same-sex marriage is simply "too hot," Villani said.  "It raises
lots of issues that I'm not sure the mainstream is comfortable hearing
about."

Andrea Stuart, the show's executive producer, disagrees.  Along with other
students who worked on the series,  Stuart has charged school officials with
a violation of free speech and she plans to appeal Vance's decision to a
higher authority -- the Montgomery County Board of Education.

As described by the "Washington Blade" (Jan. 17),  Stuart's banned episode
featured a moderator and four panelists, "two who supported the legal
recognition of same-sex marriage and two who did not."  During the program,
one of the panelists --  veteran civil rights activist Frank Kameny --
objects to some anti-gay rhetoric, and "states that the Constitution allows
all people to 'have our own views of God.'  'My God gave us homosexuality,'
he says , '... to be enjoyed to its fullest, and my God sanctifies same-sex
marriages even if your God does not."

Jamin Raskin, attorney for the students, maintains that district
representatives are now backtracking on the motive -- if not the substance --
of their decision.  According to Raskin:  "There are numerous places where
school officials told the students that they had no problem with the
technical part of the broadcast but with what Frank Kameny said.  Now they're
saying that this [decision] has to do with the technical work on the show."
 In December, for example, Joseph Villani had told a "Washington Post"
reporter that same-sex marriage "is a topic we are not going to get in the
middle of."  Now, however, he insists the ban was "not about whether kids
should be discussing these topics.  It was a programming decision."

Parroting this new party line, a spokesperson for the school district
recently said the "central issue is not censorship, but whether a broadcaster
such as Montgomery County Public Schools has a responsibility to ensure
program quality."  District representative Brian Porter also stated that the
school's cable system "has aired more than once a 1995 show on same-sex
marriage in which each of the four panelists are either gay male, lesbian, or
 bisexual."

Andrea Stuart remains skeptical, however.  "A lot of the students that have
participated in the TV programs here have felt strongly about the quality of
what we produce," Stuart says.  "It's interesting to see that in someone
else's opinion, programs we were producing two years ago are of better
quality than what we're doing now."

After viewing a tape of the banned broadcast, "Washington Blade" columnist
Steve Twomey could find no basis -- other than homophobia -- for the censors
"heated" claims.  In his view:  "The show graphically depicts four adults and
one teenager.  It graphically depicts them fully and conservatively clothed,
sitting in chairs.  They talk for about an hour.  Nobody swears, tells an
off-color joke or mentions an X-rated organ.  Although matters get heated, no
punches are thrown.  I saw no guns, condoms or centerfolds."

"Nervous about how conservatives might react," says Twomey, school officials
"panicked over something as timid as a pro-and-con chat about same-sex
unions."  He concludes:  "Too much education on the education channel is a
no-no, it seems."

Ironically, the school district's own guidelines -- "A Student's Guide to
Rights and Responsibilities in Montgomery County Public Schools" (1996-97) --
encourage "freedom of inquiry and expression."  The district also "prohibits
discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, marital status,
religion, sex, age, sexual orientation or disability in employment or in any
of its education programs, services, and activities."  However, in a survey
reported just last year, OVER HALF of Montgomery's high school students said
they had personally witnessed instances of homophobic discrimination.

Such survey results are as common as censorship.  Indeed, homophobic
classrooms are the product of homophobic censors.

The recent cases in Maryland and Texas reflect a broader trend, threatening
school districts across the country.  "Within the typical secondary school
curriculum, homosexuals do not exist," says Gerald Unks, editor of "The High
School Journal" and a professor of education at the University of North
Carolina.  Such systematic omission, he suggests, is nothing less than "a
breach of a student's academic freedom."

"It is in the same category as all of the other topics that self-appointed
thought police have historically sought to keep out of the classroom --
evolution, Communism, and the rest," Unks says.  "Societies are totalitarian
to the extent that they have areas of belief and attitude that are closed to
reflective examination and thought."

Leanne Katz, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship
(NCAC), has also observed "a worsening national climate for artistic
expression," particularly where children are concerned.  Among other things,
Katz hopes to "discredit the 'spin' that it is desirable for different First
Amendment standards to apply in different communities."  "Students in the
many places where there are ludicrous efforts to characterize educators as
enemies of families are entitled to -- and need access to -- the same array
of books and ideas as young people everywhere," she explains. 

Indeed, when and wherever such entitlements are denied with impunity, EVERY
student -- and, really, ALL of society -- continues to suffer.  As Gerald
Unks points out:  "The absence from the curriculum of valid information about
homosexuality cuts both ways; heterosexual students are given no reasons not
to hate homosexuals, while homosexual students are given no reason not to
hate themselves."

* * * *  ACTION ALERT!:   Defend the speech rights of students -- so often
prone to the whims of homophobia -- and support their appeals for
intellectual freedom and integrity.  Send feedback to:  Robert Hinkle, Dallas
Independent School District, 3700 Ross Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204-5422, tel.
214-989-8080 or 214-989-8000; Dr. Paul L. Vance, Superintendent of Schools
and Secretary-Treasurer, Board of Education, Montgomery County Public
Schools, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850-1744, tel.
301-279-3381, fax 301-279-3205, http://mcps.k12.md.us/.  Messages of support
for Blair's students and staff can also be posted directly the school's web
site (http://www.mbhs.edu/).

Related activist resources, free for the asking, include a handy "Resolution
on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youths in the Schools" (from the National
Association of School Psychologists, 4340 East West Highway, Suite 402,
Bethesda, MD 20814, tel. 301-657-0270, fax 301-657-0275, e-mail
[email-masked]) and "Express Yourself," a multimedia MAC-compatible
computer program "created to teach high school students about their First
Amendment rights" (distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union, 1663
Mission Street, Suite 460, San Francisco, CA 94103, tel. 415-621-2006, e-mail
[email-masked]).  Web browsers can access "Creating Safe Schools for
Lesbian and Gay Students: A Resource Guide for School Staff"
(http://members.tripod.com/~twood/guide.html).

Attacks on student media are regularly challenged in "Censorship News," a
newsletter of the National Coalition Against Censorship (275 Seventh Avenue,
New York, NY 10001, tel. 212-807-6222, e-mail [email-masked],
http://www.ncac.org).  Gerald Unks -- editor of "The High School Journal" and
"The Gay Teen" -- can be contacted at:  School of Education, 212D Peabody
Hall, University of North Carolina, CB #3500, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500,
tel. 919-962-1395.

[2]

R A T I N G  T H E  R A T I N G S

Last year, as head of an industry group overseeing the nation's TV ratings
system, Jack Valenti promised that his new scheme "is not designed to
discourage creation of lesbian- and gay-themed programming" (GLAAD Press
Release, Dec. 19).  In its early application, however, the new system seems
to favor an old -- and homophobic -- bias.  Two recent episodes of "Murphy
Brown" (ABC) provide a suggestive case-in-point.

A rating of "TV-PG" was assigned to the February 3 broadcast of "Murphy
Brown," listed in "TV Guide" with this description:  "Jim believes romance
can blossom for him again -- this time with the raven-haired receptionist
(Mary-Margaret Humes) -- at Lansing's new girlfriend's charity benefit for
exotic dancers."  Conversely, producers gave a "TV-14" rating to the previous
week's show.  The January 27 episode, not coincidentally, featured a gay
character and plotline.

During the January 27 broadcast, "Murphy Brown's" regular cast reacts to --
and learns from -- a theatrical production of "Frank's" autobiography...  in
which the straight lead is unexpectedly cast as gay by the play's homosexual
director.  The episode's approach to homosexuality is anything but overt,
unlike the more blatant HETERO-eroticism suggested for February 3.

Once again, homosexuality is grossly rated as a de facto "controversy" --
regardless of particular treatment  --  intended "for mature audiences only."
 Heterosexuality, however, is given to much finer distinctions...  more often
deemed "suitable for young viewers."

As explained in a recent issue of "TV Guide" (Feb. 7), the ratings of "TV-PG"
and "TV-14" differ significantly.  "TV-PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)" is
assigned to a program that "may contain some material that some parents would
find unsuitable for younger children; it may contain infrequent coarse
language, limited violence, and some suggestive sexual dialogue or
situations."  By contrast, the more dire rating of "TV-14 (Parents Strongly
Cautioned)" is used to indicate:  "This program may contain some material
that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age;
it may contain sophisticated themes, sexual content, strong language, and
more intense violence."

One of the nation's loudest (if not leading) Right-Wing media watch groups --
the American Family Association -- has already announced "a boycott of
advertisers who support television shows tagged with a TV-14 rating."  "We
will select one or more of the leading sponsors of the programs rated TV-14
and call for a boycott of their products," said AFA president Donald Wildmon.
 "We will use the ratings provided by the networks to identify the top
sponsors of filth."

Launched this year, the new TV ratings are currently under review by the
Federal Communications Commission.  The FCC must give final approval to this
scheme, and commissioners are expected to formally solicit public comment in
the near future.  Groups expected to recommend rejection of the plan include
the Center for Media Education and the ACLU. 

* * * *  ACTION ALERT!:   Send critical feedback to Leslie Moonves, President
of CBS Entertainment, CBS, 7800 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA  90036, e-mail
[email-masked]; copy your correspondence to TV Parental Guidelines
Oversight Monitoring Board, P.O. Box 14097, Washington, DC 20004, tel.
202-879-9364, http://www.tvguidelines.org/.  To inform the FCC, contact:
  The Chair and All Members, Federal Communications Commission, 1919 M Street
NW, Washington, DC 20554, tel. 202-418-0200 or 202-632-7000, e-mail
[email-masked], http://www.fcc.gov/.

[3]

R E P O R T I N G  H O M O P H O B I A

The latest issue of "Esquire" magazine (Feb. 1997) includes an intriguing
piece by Michael Segell:  "Homophobia Doesn't Lie."  Though less than
perfect, the article's "food for thought" still offers more than most.  For
despite rising reports of homosexuality in the news,  HOMOPHOBIA remains one
of journalism's least-mentioned words. 

To open his article, Segell poses an urgent question.  He writes:  "Last
November, Jonathan Schmitz was convicted of blasting two shotgun holes in the
chest of a gay man who had declared on national television that he had a
secret crush on Schmitz.  Following the trial, the defendant's lawyer
announced his desire to sue the show's host, Jenny Jones, for creating what
he called 'this unnecessary, unreasonable, negligent risk.'  Just what risk
was he talking about?"

In his "burst of homophobic rage," Segell suggests, Jonathan Schmitz was
acting no differently than a lot of "normal" men.  "To homosexuals, Schmitz's
response, though extreme, was not unexpected," Segell writes.  "Ninety
percent of gay men report having been a target of verbal abuse or threats,
and more than a third of them claim to be survivors of violence related to
their homosexuality."

Segell goes on to explain that gay bashing is still largely understudied and
misunderstood.  As an exception, however, Segell cites a recent report in the
"Journal of Abnormal Psychology" -- in which "Henry Adams, a professor of
clinical psychology at the University of Georgia, and his colleagues set out
to investigate the susceptibility of homophobic and nonhomophobic men to
homosexual imagery."

Segell carefully relates various details of this study, which seem to confirm
that "homophobia is the result of repressed homosexual urges or a form of
latent homosexuality."  Unfortunately, however, he gives little weight to the
study's LIMITATIONS -- and there are several.

First, the sample is small and idiosyncratic (subjects consisted of
"sixty-four white male heterosexuals between eighteen and thirty-one years
old").  Moreover, the researchers utilized images of EXPLICIT sexual activity
-- images that are not the stuff of everyday, mundane exposure.  Finally, the
study relied upon physiological responses ("arousal was measured by a gauge
attached to the base of the penis that detects erectile response and records
it on a computer"); such measures -- taken in decidedly "unnatural" lab
settings -- raise a host of questions in regard to validity.

In his article, Segell quotes Adams, who concludes:  "Men who are upset by
being around gay men probably have these tendencies themselves.  The thing
you dislike most in yourself is the kind of thing you might jump on somebody
else for."

While this could be true for some (or even many) homophobes, it is certainly
not true for all.  More importantly, such research -- particularly as
reported in the popular press -- tends to lend support to the notion that gay
men are somehow responsible for their own bashings.

Lost in Segell's summary of findings is an important fact:  many devout
heterosexuals ARE the carriers of substantial homophobia.  Jesse Helms and
Pat Robertson are not (hopefully) latent homosexuals.  Yet they, and others
like them, are potent sources of societal homophobia.  The ignorance and hate
they legislate and preach is, often, the foundation for a gay basher's
murderous rage.

Adams' research does not fully explain every hate crime, including some of
the most heinous and high-profile cases.  Recently, for example, the
execution-style killer of a lesbian couple in Oregon admitted he knew the
women were lesbians...  which made it "easier" to kill them.  Is latent
homosexuality -- or societal homophobia -- the more likely or potent
precursor to this hate crime?

Though missing the chance to raise such questions, Segell's article
nevertheless proceeds to a point worth pondering.  "While Jonathan Schmitz's
catastrophic response to his inner turmoil is, thankfully, rare, homophobia
is not," says Segell.  "In an enlightened climate, gay bashing would be a
form of self-outing.  And to a homophobic man, that could prove to be the
ultimate deterrent to violence."

* * * *  ACTION ALERT!:  Share compliments or critiques with "Esquire," 250
West Fifty-fifth Street, New York, NY 10019, tel. 212-649-2000, e-mail
[email-masked].

[End Part A]

--------------------------------------------------------------

ABOUT MEDIALERTS

Distributed as a community press service since 1992, "MEDIAlert!" [TM] is a
biweekly, advocacy-oriented column of media criticism, primarily focused on
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender issues.  Recipients may print, publish or
post this material, in whole or part, under this or any title, without prior
permission.  When appropriate, attribution can be made to "Al Kielwasser"
and/or "MEDIAlert!"  File copies of publications using all or part of any
"MEDIAlert!" are always appreciated.  Next "MEDIAlert!":  February 15, 1997.
  Contact:  A. P. Kielwasser, MEDIAction, 163 Park Street, San Francisco, CA
94110-5835, voice-mail/fax 415-826-5203, e-mail [email-masked].

--------------------------------------------------------------

AUTHOR NOTES

Al Kielwasser is the editor of "Gay People, Sex and the Media" (New York:
 Haworth Press); his criticism and research have appeared widely, in both
mainstream and academic publications (including the "Journal of American
Culture," "Journal of Homosexuality," "Journal of Popular Culture," and
"Critical Studies in Mass Communication"), and he was twice elected Chair of
the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/San Francisco Bay Area.