Subject: MEDIAlert! ["A"] - 04.4.97
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 23:28:53 -0400 (EDT)

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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)
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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 [email-masked];  "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 [email-masked]; Reuters, 199 Water
Street, New York, NY 10038, fax 212-859-1717, e-mail [email-masked].

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 [email-masked]; 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
[email-masked]).

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 [email-masked]; Phil Bronstein,
Editor, "San Francisco Examiner," 110 5th Street, San Francisco, CA 94111,
fax 415-512-1264, e-mail [email-masked]; 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
[email-masked]; National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, 2320 17th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20009, e-mail [email-masked].

[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"]

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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 [email-masked].

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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.