Subject: "MEDIAlert!" - 06.6.97 [PART "A" ONLY]
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 11:34:31 -0400 (EDT)

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INDEX:  "MEDIAlert!" - 06.6.97 [Part "A" ONLY]

-ITEM 1:  "Post Beef" [Washington Post; Cary Grant; New Yorker].

-ITEM 2:  "Better Dead Than Read?" [Circle of Friends; Stevensville High
School; Montana Human Rights Network; Bitterroot Star; Attacks on the Freedom
to Learn].

NOTE:  Part "B" (Media/BRIEFS) posted separately.
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M   E   D   I   A   l   e   r   t   !
___________________________

May 24 - June 6   Al Kielwasser

[1]

P O S T  B E E F

"How gay Cary Grant?  Way gay?  Semi-gay?  Bi?  Ungay, but misunderstood?  Or
-- does anybody care?"  So asks Stephen Hunter in a "Washington Post" (June
5) column that is at once ignorant and insulting.

Specifically, Hunter attempts an attack on literary critic Brendan Gill.  In
the current issue of the "New Yorker," Gill reviews two new books on Cary
Grant's life.  Both books failed to account for persistent rumors about
Grant's sexual orientation, and Gill -- correctly -- called their authors on
the omission.

In Hunter's (so-called) mind, however, the mere suggestion that Cary Grant
could be gay is akin to blasphemy.  According to Hunter:  "There are two
questions here, both of them slightly offensive.  First, was Grant gay?
 Second, does it matter?"

In answering the first "offensive" question, Hunter argues that:  "Grant,
after all, was married five times, fathered a daughter, reputedly fell in
love with Sophia Loren... (and) had dozens, if not hundreds, of affairs with
women before his death in 1986."  There is no evidence that Grant was gay or
bisexual, says Hunter, only "simple rumor of the sort that surrounds every
attractive personality, reflecting some deep mistrust of beauty wherever it
occurs."

Of course, Hunter completely -- and deliberately -- ignores how homophobia
ravages so much of history, often leaving behind rumors as the only (if not
the best) evidence.  Such evidence is not the product of any neurotic
"mistrust of beauty," but a psychotic fear of homosexuality.

Indeed, the specific history of homosexuality in Hollywood is riddled with
gay actors who fronted all of the seemingly heterosexual ploys described by
Hunter.  Faux marriages and affairs were (and to some extent still are)
publicity mainstays of the what film historian Vitto Russo deemed "the
celluloid closet."

Hunter's second question -- "does it matter?" -- is an increasingly common
response to lesbian and gay visibility, especially from critics who would not
otherwise describe themselves as bigots.  In raising such a question,
however, these critics are only attempting to re-build the closet.  They want
to have their homophobic cake and eat it too.

Critics of Ellen DeGeneres, for example, frequently tried to argue that -- if
the actress' sexual orientation is irrelevant -- she had no reason to come
out (i.e., she should have just stayed in the closet and continued to live a
lie).  Questions like "who cares?" or "does it matter?" are not simply
disingenuous, but deeply insulting.  They ignore the reality of homophobia in
a society that still tears children away from their loving lesbian mothers
and forces gay teens to undergo horrific psychiatric tortures.

For suggesting that Cary Grant might have been gay, Hunter accuses Gill of
caring too much about sexual orientation.  In a similar way, racist bigots
have attacked those who support affirmative action for caring too much about
race.  Yet it is Hunter who is obviously obsessed -- with heterosexuality.

Hunter goes on, at length, describing the "extreme beauty" of Grant's
"regular features"  -- right down to "that final little blessing from God, a
cleft in the dead center of his chin."  "Does that make him gay?," he
sarcastically asks.  Perhaps Hunter should ask himself why he is so
fascinated with Cary Grant's body.

Hunter's particular paranoia -- that someone with "regular features" could
actually be queer -- is not uncommon.  As critic Richard Mohr points out,
"the normal-appearing person being out is a major threat and source of
cultural anxiety.  For that the normal can be queer means that anyone --
father, brother, even you -- may be gay." 

Ultimately, in his attack on Gill, Hunter belittles every effort to reclaim
lesbian, gay, or bisexual history.  For Hunter, simply raising such questions
can be "more offensive" than any answers.

"But there's something more offensive in all this than its strict truth,"
Hunter writes.  "That's the sense of pride that Gill takes in outing Grant.
 It's smirky and mean-spirited, as if he's taking some pleasure, under the
guise of imparting a higher truth, in tweaking the memories of the millions
of heterosexuals who yearned to be the great Cary Grant."

"Is one more for the gay team one less for the straight team,?" Hunter
facetiously asks.  "Have we just lost points on the big sexual-preference
scoreboard in the sky?"

In conclusion, Hunter warns that there is a "reductionist" danger in asking
questions about sexual orientation.  According to Hunter:  "Gill deploys the
mechanism of reduction on Grant in much the same way that many homosexuals
have been reduced for years in a repressive society.  That reduction means
that their entire personalities -- their accomplishments, their lives, their
families -- become secondary to their sexual preference; if they're gay,
that's all they are."

Grossly unfair, critics like Hunter are quick to attack historical outing as
a repressive "mechanism of reduction."  Ironically, only a homophobe would be
truly blinded to the other qualities of a gay actor.

In the end, a genuine concern for "homosexuals in a repressive society" is
denied by Hunter's own column.  He IS the voice of repression.

* * *  ACTION ALERT!    Critical comments should be directed to:  Stephen
Hunter, Staff Writer, "Washington Post," 1150 15th Street NW, Washington, DC
20071-0002, fax 202-334-4475, e-mail [email-masked], web-site
http://www.washingtonpost.com; complaints should be copied to Robert G.
Kaiser, Managing Editor, "Washington Post," at the same address.

Feedback can also be sent to:  "The New Yorker," 20 West 43rd Street, New
York, NY 10036.

Re/Sources:  For historical and critical takes on homophobia in Hollywood,
see Vitto Russo's "The Celluloid Closet" (New York:  Harper & Row, 1985) and
Larry Gross' "Contested Closets" (Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota
Press, 1993).  Richard Mohr's observations are elaborated in his book "Gay
Ideas - Outing and Other Controversies" (Boston:  Beacon Press, 1992).

[2]

B E T T E R  D E A D  T H A N  R E A D  ?

Circle of Friends, a Washington-based distributor of multicultural books for
children, has come under attack in Montana.  Recently, the company's new
catalogue (which includes 23 lesbian- or gay-inclusive titles) was mailed to
local school officials, prompting a death threat against owner Carol Miller.

After receiving the catalog, a school district employee placed an anonymous
call to Miller, advising her that:  "Anyone with any brains at all would know
that gays are abnormal and against God's will."  

"People like you don't deserve to live," the caller warned.  "Someone like
you better watch out."

Police were able to trace the call to an office phone at Stevensville High
School in Montana.  Local school officials have declined to investigate -- or
even condemn -- the incident, however.

According to Christine Kaufmann, research director for the Montana Human
Rights Network:  "The catalogue was mailed to Superintendent Tony Tognetti,
but school officials -- who acknowledge they KNOW the identity of the caller
-- have refused to say if Tognetti placed the call."

Instead, School board president Gary Burgett has dismissed the incident.
 "The phone call was misinterpreted by the persons who got the call," Burgett
said, "and it's kind of been blowed [sic] out of proportion."

A local weekly newspaper, "The Bitterroot Star," has filed suit against
school board members, claiming they violated open-meeting laws in their
handling of this case.  "The paper wants to know how the board investigated
and made their decisions about how to respond to the phone call," Kaufmann
reports.  "But that was all done in closed-door sessions without proper
notification, according to the lawsuit."

In lieu of explanation, the school board has vaguely defended its decision to
repudiate neither the caller nor his call.  "As a board, we decided to let it
resolve itself," said board member Katy Majors.  

Shifting blame to the victim, Majors added that she was "shocked" that books
about children who have lesbian mothers (or gay fathers) were even "being
offered in Montana."  "I don't think we are interested," said Majors.

Upset by this response, Ami Thurber -- director of the Women's Center at the
University of Montana -- requested time to address the school board at its
next meeting.  Though he allowed her to offer public testimony, Burgett told
Thurber that she could not use the words "gay," "lesbian," or "homosexual" in
her statement.

"On a very basic level, this phone call legitimized the use of hate speech,
condoned violence and essentially gave a green light for anyone to threaten
and even harm a person or group of people the do not like or do not
understand," Thurber told the board.  "Clearly, we cannot tolerate our
educators setting examples of violence."

According to the Montana Human Rights Network, local activists are continuing
to call upon the school board "to publicly condemn the threatening call and
to offer support for the safety of all students and for their right to be who
they are."  Network staff have also spoken to Carol Miller of Circle of
Friends, who expressed "an interest in offering a workshop on inclusiveness
in the Stevensville area."

* * *  ACTION ALERT!    Share your concerns with:  Principal, Stevensville
High School, 300 Park Street, Stevensville, MT 59870, tel. 406-777-5481; Gary
Burgett, 3450 Baldwin Road, Stevensville, MT 59870-2903, tel. 406-777-2210;
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Office of Public Instruction, Room 106,
State Capitol, Helena MT 59620.  Copies of correspondence and/or additional
feedback can be sent to:  Carlotta Grandstaff, Editor, "Bitterroot Star," 215
Main, P.O. Box 8, Stevensville, MT 59870, tel. 406-777-3928, fax
406-777-4265, e-mail [email-masked], web site
http://www.bitterroot.net/star/star.html.

Circle of Friends catalogs are free for the asking; you might request a copy
for your local Board of Education or school librarian!  Contact:  Circle of
Friends, P.O. Box 132, Friday Harbor, WA 98250, tel. 800-269-0420 or
360-378-2586, fax 360-378-2011, e-mail [email-masked], web-site
http://www.cofbooks.com.

Re/Sources:  The Montana Human Rights Network is described as a "frontline
human rights group in the heart of militia country; MHRN publishes a
newsletter, the "Network News."  Contact:  MHRN, P.O. Box 1222, Helena, MT
59624, tel. 406-442-5506.

"Attacks on the Freedom to Learn" is an online, bimonthly newsletter
distributed by People For the American Way.  Each issue reports on "attempts
to remove or restrict educational materials or programs in classrooms and
libraries....  from Alaska to Maryland, from elementary schools to high
schools."  Individuals are encouraged to notify PFAW of censorship efforts in
their local school districts; the group's web site [http://pfaw.org]makes it
easy to report an incident or subscribe to the newsletter.  This fall, PFAW
also will release a report on "the Religious Right's attack on public
education."  Contact:  People For the American Way, 2000 M Street NW, Suite
400, Washington, DC 20036, e-mail [email-masked].

[end "Part A"]

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Next "MEDIAlert!"  =  June 20, 1997.  Contact:  MEDIAction, 163 Park Street,
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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 has 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.