From: MediAction@aol.com Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 23:28:53 -0400 (EDT) Subject: MEDIAlert! ["A"] - 04.4.97 ------------------------------------------------------------ INDEX: "MEDIAlert!" for 04.4.97 [PART "A"]. -ITEM 1: "Cult Coverage" [Heaven's Gate; Marshall Applewhite; Washington Post; Reuters; CNN; Associated Press; San Francisco Examiner; New York Daily News; Time; Newsweek; NGLTF; News You Didn't See On TV]. -ITEM 2: "Traditional American Censors" [Mecklenberg County Board of Commissioners; Angels In America; Six Degrees of Separation; Arts & Science Council]. (Please Note: Parts "B" [Items 3-4] and "C" [Items 5-12] are posted separately) ------------------------------------------------------------ M E D I A l e r t ! __________________________ April 4 - 17 Al Kielwasser [1] C U L T C O V E R A G E The injection of homosexuality into the Heaven's Gate frenzy prompted a "second round" of news reports, even more akin to salacious gossip than serious journalism. This media spatter has been wide -- but not very deep. Sparking the coverage, "The Washington Post" (March 29) was first to report that Marshall Applewhite -- leader of the Heaven's Gate cult -- suffered from a repressed homosexuality. In an article headlined "Crisis of Sexuality Launched Strange Journey," "Post" reporters Marc Fisher and Sue Ann Pressley revealed: "For the first four decades of his life, Marshall Herff Applewhite strove above all to do his father proud. He followed his father, a Presbyterian minister, into the seminary, devoted himself to his church, married and had two children.... But by the early 1970s, Applewhite, who this week led 38 members of his UFO cult to join him in a fatal cocktail of Phenobarbital and vodka in California, could no longer hide his secret: For several years, according to friends and former cult members, Applewhite had been engaging in homosexual relationships." According to the "Post," Applewhite had once "checked into a psychiatric hospital... and asked to be 'cured' of his homosexual desires." He "felt guilty about his homosexual affairs," the newspaper reported, and eventually "had himself castrated." To explain Applewhite's condition, the "Post" quoted a source from the Institute for the Study of American Religion -- James Lewis -- who had been studying Heaven's Gate for the past two decades. "Applewhite was so alienated from his homosexuality that he was teaching people not to have sex," Lewis said. "He would... force them to learn to become neutral, nonsexual." "Lewis and other cult experts said Applewhite never strayed entirely from his Christian upbringing," the "Post" reported. "In their passionate desire to separate themselves from sexuality and their own bodies," the "Post" explained, Applewhite and Heaven's Gate co-founder Bonnie Nettles "would recruit hundreds of followers around the country and require them to dress alike, cut their hair and repress any sexual identity." To their particular credit, "Post" reporters made a point of distinguishing homosexuality from mental illness. In a gloss of the prevailing psychological wisdom, they reported: "In 1974, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Today, most therapists encourage gay people to accept their sexuality. The videotapes of Applewhite's final statements show him to be delusional, sexually repressed, and suffering from a rare case of clinical paranoia.... Applewhite never told his family about his homosexuality." This concession to the views of "most therapists" is noticeably absent in other news accounts, though all were based on the "Post's" article. Typical of the pack is a story from Reuters (March 29), which leads: "Marshall Applewhite met the nurse who became the co-founder of his cult while he was a patient in a Texas hospital where he sought help in curbing his homosexual desires, 'The Washington Post' reported Saturday." In a second paragraph, Reuters covers Applewhite's "homosexual relationship with a student," which led to his dismissal from a "post as music professor at Houston's Catholic University of St. Thomas in 1970." Not until paragraphs five and six, is Applewhite identified as "a preacher's son" who "once hoped to preach himself." And NOWHERE in the article's sixteen paragraphs is any reference to the professional consensus on "curbing" homosexuality. Nearly identical to Reuters, a CNN story (March 29) began with this lead: "The leader of Heaven's Gate, whose members died in a mass suicide this week, met his co-leader at a hospital where he had hoped to be cured of homosexual urges, according to a report in 'The Washington Post.'" Though repeating the "Post's" references to alienation and guilt, CNN ignored the opinion of "most therapists" -- and excluded any mention of healthy homosexuals. A story filed by the Associated Press (March 29) continued the trend. According to AP's lead: "Today's 'Washington Post' had reported that... [Applewhite] sought psychiatric treatment to be cured of homosexual impulses. Applewhite and 38 cult followers killed themselves this week in California." Significantly, these news reports put homosexuality and suicide in close proximity -- a slant that reinforces common perceptions of "queer" as "sick" -- as if the phrase "insane homosexual" were redundant. In reality, of course, suicide is often a final response to the INSANITY OF HOMOPHOBIA. At best, most of the mainstream press only hinted at this fact. At their worst, journalists merely repeated homophobic fictions -- without challenge. Vying for worst place, the New York "Daily News" (March 31) published an interview with the children of Bonnie Nettles, who now claim their mother "wanted to escape the cult she co-founded" (and presumably, to escape from her queer co-founder as well). Nettles' son remembers Applewhite "as a homosexual 'freak,'" the "Daily News" reported. "Applewhite was as gay as they came," said Joe Nettles. "He ran around with his friends in hot pants.... he was a freak." Among the best efforts, so far, is an article from the "San Francisco Examiner" (March 30), whose headline announced: "Sexuality Not To Blame For Deaths, Analysts Say." This story took direct account of the damage done by homophobia and "the closet." Unfortunately, however, the "Examiner's" reporting appears to be a classic case of an exception that only proves the rule. Like most of the daily metros, weekly news magazines also seemed to give more space than thought to the tragedy of Applewhite. Heaven's Gate was the subject of special cover stories in both "Time" (April 7) and "Newsweek" (April 7). Recounting the cult leader's early years, "Newsweek" reported that "Applewhite was driven by sexual demons." Though he "seemed to enjoy life as a family man," his marriage "broke up, and Applewhite left Alabama amid whispers of a homosexual affair." "In that place and in that time," the magazine added, "a homosexual would feel alienated indeed." The suggestion that Applewhite was driven by "sexual demons" (i.e., homosexuality) tends toward sensationalism. Moreover, it gives short shrift to the momentum of internalized homophobia -- which undoubtedly drove Applewhite to the brinks of dysfunction. In a related feature -- "Blaming The Web" -- "Newsweek" also examined how Applewhite's cult "used the Internet to spread its weird beliefs and make a living." "As if parent's didn't have enough to worry about," the magazine concluded, "the Internet is replete with the bizarre, the wacky, and the just plain silly." In a side bar to the article -- "What's Lurking On The Web" -- "Newsweek" sampled six such sites, including "Truthseekers Review" (a UFO magazine) and "The Satanic Network." Of course, "The Christian Coalition" was NOT included on "Newsweek's" roster of worrisome sites -- though perhaps it should have been. Applewhite's "bizarre" homophobia is more easily traced to Pat Robertson than Satan. Like "Newsweek," "Time" also carried a biographical feature on Applewhite -- which also carried an unfortunate headline: "Imprisoned By His Own Passions." If anything, Applewhite was imprisoned by a pervasive (and ultimately internalized) prejudice -- to which his natural passions were apparently forfeit. As with the other coverage, "Time" reiterated Applewhite's "denial of desire," "his struggle against his homosexuality," and his 1971 check-in at "a psychiatric hospital to be cured of his homosexuality." Overlooked again, however, was any opportunity to link the destructive forces in Applewhite's life -- his individual "denial of desire" and the institutionalized denials of homosexuality in Applewhite's past (and society's present). In the wake of such reporting, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (April 1) warned that the public's response to the Heaven's Gate tragedy could turn from "shock, sorrow and surprise" to "rage, resentment and retribution." "My fear is that gays will be scapegoated for the atrocities brought about by the cult leader," said NGLTF director Kerry Lobel. "Once again, we may be vilified by those who associate everything bad, wrong, strange, or tragic with homosexuality." In her "News You Didn't See On TV" column (March 29), lesbian author Patricia Nell Warren offered a similar speculation. According to Warren, the Religious Right will likely twist Heaven's Gate into a condemnation of homosexuality AND new-age "cults" as well as homosexuality -- just one more "proof" that both are bad. Ironically, of course, the "mind control" and sex-negativity associated with "Heaven's Gate" is also common to fundamentalist religions. "In my opinion," said Warren, "any religious-right groups that operate on that same obsessive control of others is deserving of the same media splash, and investigative scrutiny, as Heaven's Gate." The point is well taken -- or at least it should be, as far as the mainstream press is concerned. However many suicides might be linked back to their efforts, the "cults" of organized homophobes are seldom portrayed as such threats. In order to understand the consequences of REPRESSED homosexuality, it is necessary to fathom the realities of OPPRESSED homosexuals -- and their oppressors. * * * * ACTION ALERT! Remind the news media that they are capable of doing more than imitate each other's mediocrity; send constructive criticism to any or all of the following: Ed Turner, Executive Vice President, CNN, 1 CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30348, tel. 404-827-1700, fax 404-827-1593 or 404-737-3323, e-mail cnn.feedback@cnn.com; "New York Daily News," 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, tel. 212-210-2100, fax 212-949-2120. Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10020-1666, tel. 212-621-1600, fax 212-621-7520, e-mail rgersh@ap.org; Reuters, 199 Water Street, New York, NY 10038, fax 212-859-1717, e-mail webmaster@reuters.com. Mark Whitaker, Managing Editor, "Newsweek," 251 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-1894, tel. 212-445-4000, fax 212-445-5068 (for possible publication in the magazine, send briefer correspondence to the "Letters Editor," at the same address, fax 212-445-4120, e-mail letters@newsweek.com; Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor, "Time," Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, New York, NY 10020, tel. 212-522-1212 (send publishable letters-to-the-editor to "Time Magazine Letters," at the same address, fax 212-522-0601, e-mail Letters@time.com). Related (Re)Sources: Patricia Nell Warren, "News You Didn't See On TV," Wildcat Press, 8306 Wilshire Blvd., Box 8306, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, tel. 213-966-2466, fax 213-966-2467, e-mail wildcatprs@aol.com; Phil Bronstein, Editor, "San Francisco Examiner," 110 5th Street, San Francisco, CA 94111, fax 415-512-1264, e-mail sfexaminer@examiner.com; Robert G. Kaiser, Managing Editor, "Washington Post," 1150 15th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20071-0002, tel. 202-334-6000, fax 202-334-5451 or 202-334-4475, e-mail webnews@washpost.com; National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, 2320 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009, e-mail ngltf@ngltf.org. [2] T R A D I T I O N A L A M E R I C A N C E N S O R S Politicians in North Carolina have voted to cut funding for any art work that depicts "perverted forms of sexuality." According to the Associated Press (April 2), commissioners in Mecklenburg County voted for the ban because they were "angry over a showing of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, gay-themed play 'Angels in America.'" "Angels in America" had been performed in Charlotte last year, amidst homophobic protest. Other "perverted" works cited by commissioners included "Six Degrees of Separation," another play that features a gay character. On a 5-4 vote, the Mecklenburg County commission withheld $2.5 million from the Arts & Science Council. "Instead of giving the money to the council to distribute, county commissioners decided, they will distribute the money directly to groups that meet its new standards," says the AP. "We are very disappointed," said A&S Council spokesperson Scott Belford. "We have served as a strong steward of the public's money." According to United Press International (April 2), a poll conducted by the "Charlotte Observer" newspaper "found 85 percent of the county's residents believe arts experts, not politicians, should decide how arts funds should be distributed." The de-funding effort was championed by Mecklenburg County commissioner Hoyle Martin, who first introduced the legislation. Specifically, the new law denies funding for art works that "promote, advocate or endorse behaviors, lifestyles and values that seek to undermine and deviate from the value and societal role of the traditional American family." "I would really like to see some our leaders tackle this head-on and raise their voices loudly," says gay activist Scott Miller. "Charlotte and Mecklenberg county have deeply embarrassed themselves. If this action stands, maybe a boycott of Charlotte is in order." * * * * ACTION ALERT! To denounce the commission's "un-American" ways, contact: H. Parks Helms, Chairperson, Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, 4901 Hadrian Way, Charlotte, NC 28211, tel. 336-9509 or 372-4884, fax 332-0585; Hoyle Martin, Commissioner-District 2, Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, P.O. Box 35645, Charlotte, NC 28235, tel. 392-4623, fax 399-1160, voice mail 336-2574. All other commissioners can be contacted at the Mecklenburg County Commission, 600 E. 4th Street, Charlotte, NC 28202, tel. 704-336-2479. To protest this action through the regional press, send letters-to-the-editors of: "The Charlotte Observer," 600 S. Tyron Street, Charlotte, NC 28202, tel. 704-358-5000, fax 704-358-5022; "Asheville Citizen," Box 2090, Asheville, NC 28801, fax 704-251-0585; "The Gazette," Box 1538, Gastonia, NC 28053, fax 704-867-6988. Related (Re)Sources: Arts & Science Council, 214 N. Church Street, Charlotte, NC 28202-2194. [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!" = April 18, 1997. Contact: A. P. Kielwasser, MEDIAction, 163 Park Street, San Francisco, CA 94110-5835, voice-mail/fax 415-826-5203, e-mail mediaction@aol.com. ---------------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR NOTES Al Kielwasser is the editor of "Gay People, Sex and the Media" (New York: Haworth Press). His media 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"); he was twice elected Chair of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/San Francisco Bay Area.