Subject: GLAAD News Analysis of Gay Rights March/ Mil. Man March
From: [email-masked] (Tina M. Wood)
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 12:06:26 -0500

For Immediate Release   Contact: William Waybourn
Monday, November 6, 1995      Ben Boyd
         Aviva Goldfarb
         Eric Hauser
         (202) 986-1360
Gay Rights March and Million Man March Equal in Participants, Not News
Coverage

Washington, DC ae Two marches.  Both were historic.  Both drew hundreds of
thousands of supporters--African American to one, gay and lesbian to the
other.  Yet Americans were five times more likely to read about the 1995
Million Man March in major national and regional newspapers than the 1993 Gay
Rights March on Washington, according to a new survey by a gay and lesbian
media watch group.
 "The expansive coverage of the Million Man March shed light on the lives,
hopes, and dreams of the African-Americans who participated.  Equal coverage
of the April 1993 Gay Rights March On Washington would have given Americans a
similar understanding of our community," said William Waybourn, Managing
Director of GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
 GLAAD recently completed a comparison of the newspaper coverage of both
historic events and found striking differences.
 According to official National Park Service estimates, both marches drew
roughly 400,000 participants; however, organizers of both events put the
number of attendees much higher.  Yet, while attendance was comparable, the
GLAAD survey revealed a tremendous disparity in the number of stories in
major newspapers that each march generated.   In the one week period before
and after each event, the Million Man March was the subject of over 1,650
stories, while the March On Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Rights
was the subject of only 349--a five to one ratio.
 "We found that for each story written on the Gay Rights March, the Million
Man March generated five,"  Waybourn said.  "GLAAD views the coverage given
the Million Man March with both envy and disappointment.  Had the lesbian and
gay community been viewed as equally newsworthy and received comparable
coverage, the country  would have had the opportunity to receive a tremendous
amount of information regarding the vitally important contributions gays and
lesbians make to every facet of our society," according to Waybourn.
 "In story after story, readers learned about the feelings of the Million Man
marchers, about their desires to end discrimination and bigotry, and about
their collective ambitions for the African-American community.  It was
impressive coverage.  Equal coverage for our march could have benefited the
gay and lesbian community and the nation as a whole," Waybourn said.
 GLAAD, a national organization with offices in Washington, New York, Los
Angeles, and Portland, serves as a voice for the gay and lesbian community.
 GLAAD  works to promote, fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of
individuals and events in all media as a means of combating homophobia and
all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.  GLAAD's
survey was conducted using Lexis/Nexis, to identify stories that appeared one
week before and after each event.
 Newspapers surveyed by GLAAD include: Arizona Republic, Asbury Park Press,
Business Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily News (NY),
Financial Times, Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Newsday, Orlando
Sentinel, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rocky Mountain
News, San Diego Union-Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Petersburg Times,
Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The
Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Cleveland Plain
Dealer, The Dallas Morning News, the Detroit News, The Hartford Courant, The
Houston Chronicle, The Houston Post, The New York Times, The Phoenix Gazette,
The Sacramento Bee, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Tampa
Tribune, The Washington Post, USA Today, USA Weekend, and Wall Street
Journal.
MARCH      STORIES
Million Man March     1,698
Event Date: October 16, 1995
National Park Service estimate: 400,000

March On Washington for Gay Civil Rights  349
Event Date: April 25, 1993
National Park Service estimate: 400,000

NEWSPAPER      MMM   MOW
New York Times     61   28
USA Today      67   18
Washington Post     137   54

** Based on news outlets on-line with Lexis/Nexis service.