Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 18:51:20 -0400
From: glaad@glaad.org (GLAAD)
Subject: GLAADAlert 9.12.97

GLAADAlert  -- September 12, 1997
The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation

Index:
1) Christian Radio Host Urges Death to Gay People (Crawford Broadcasting,
KBRT-AM, FCC)
2) Gay Character Bursts Out of Veronica's Closet (NBC Entertainment)
3) At Diana Memorial, world Watches Gay Couple Mourn (E! Entertainment,
MSNBC & NBC, CBS, ABC, Newsweek)
4) Deseret News Is Mouthpiece for So-Called "Ex-Gay" Movement (Deseret
News, Scipps Howard News Service)
5) Intersex People Hidden Behind Potted Plants (ABC Prime Time Live)
6) Who Has The Image Problem? (Chicago Tribune)
7) Philly Paper Ignores Key Versace Family Member (Philadelphia Daily News)
8) SF Chronicle Looks Back at Transgender Films (San Francisco Chronicle)

Christian Radio Host Urges Death to Gay People
On the August 29 show of Crosstalk on Christian-owned KBRT-AM in Costa
Mesa, California, host Rich Agozino suggested that homosexuality should be
punishable by death. According to his interpretation of the Bible, Agozino
said that, "Lesbian love [and] sodomy are viewed by God as being detestable
and abominable....Civil magistrates are to put people to death who practice
these things." He also urged listeners and callers to write to state
legislators calling for laws that would sentence lesbians and gay men to
death. When asked to comment on his host's execution-style morality,
KBRT-AM station manager Ed Personius claimed Agozino was just encouraging
people to follow the "word of God." Don Crawford, Jr., general manager of
Crawford Broadcasting West, of which KBRT is a subsidiary, was unavailable
for comment, but an assistant confirmed that Crawford Broadcasting was
"Christian owned and operated."

At a September 11 meeting, the Orange County Human Relations Commission
passed a resolution urging people to: 1. Write the station manager at
KBRT-AM;  2. Write Don Crawford, owner of the station; 3. Warn both that
Agonizo's call for a death penalty on the basis of sexual orientation
"foments deep fear in the gay and lesbian  community" and "promotes
violence against gays and lesbians in Orange County," adding that both KBRT
and Crawford "are responsible" for any increase in violence against
lesbians and gay men in the near future.; and 4. Send a complaint to the
FCC.

In addition, people who are within the broadcast area of KBRT should note
several sponsors and ask them if they feel it is "Christian" to urge death
to gay people when one of the Ten Commandments states "Thou Shalt Not
Kill," and urge advertisers to take their business to a station more
interested in promoting genuine Christian love and inclusiveness.
Contact:
… Don Crawford, Owner/President, Crawford Broadcasting, P.O. Box 3003, Blue
Bell, PA 19422, phone: 215.628.3500, fax:  215.628.0818;
… Ed Personius, Station Manager, KBRT-AM, 3183 Airway Avenue, Suite D,
Costa Mesa, CA 92626, fax:  714.754.0735;
… Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 1919 M Street NW, Washington, DC
20554, phone for AM Radio Complaint Division: 202.418.2795, e-mail address
for complaints: enf@fcc.gov.


Gay Character Bursts Out of Veronica's Closet
Beginning on September 25 at 9:30 ET/PT, NBC's new hopeful Veronica's
Closet, starting Kirstie Alley, will feature a gay character named Josh,
played by Wallace Langham. Adding a fresh spin to a television gay
character, Josh premieres in the closet, even though the rest of the cast
knows that he is gay. While the cast's knowledge is assumption, it is not
through traditional stereotypes by which he is defined. At one point, Josh
is talking to Veronica (Kirstie Alley) about breaking up with his
girlfriend. He ponders, "I don't even know why we broke up." Veronica looks
at him and matter-of-factly replies, "I don't know...maybe its because
you're gay!" Josh begins to deny it and Veronica tries to assure him, "You
are a gay man!" He protests, "What is it? I mean, you and my mother."
Veronica smiles at him and gives him a little kiss saying, "We just want
you to be happy."

Josh's sexual orientation is such a non-issue with his co-workers that one
wonders why he was not out of the closet to begin with. However, GLAAD has
learned from sources at NBC that Josh will not remain in the closet for
long.

Please write NBC and let them know that the gay character on Veronica's
Closet is appreciated and encourage them to continue to develop Josh in a
well-rounded manner.
Contact: Warren Littlefield, President, NBC Entertainment, 3000 W. Alameda
Avenue, Burbank, CA 91523, e-mail: entertainment@nbc.com.


At Diana Memorial, World Watches Gay Couple Mourn
Thanks in large part to live feeds from British networks Sky News and ITN,
the American media coverage of the Princess Diana funeral and memorial
services featured two gay men comforting one another. According to viewer
reports to GLAAD, coverage by at least E! Entertainment Network, MSNBC,
NBC, CBS and ABC included a montage of mourners in London that had two men
embracing and weeping, and one of the men gave the other a comforting kiss
on the forehead. In addition, the September 15 issue of Newsweek features
an image by the Associated Press of two men holding one another in
mourning.

Considering that over 33 million Americans (86 percent of the audience
share) watched the funeral and surrounding coverage on television, this
casual inclusion of gay people showed how we are, indeed, everywhere and a
part of the mosaic of society.

Please commend E! Entertainment Network, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC and Newsweek
for recognizing the value of representing gay people in one of the
most-watched news events of the decade. In addition, encourage them to
continue this kind of inclusive coverage in the future.
Contact:
… Edward Zarcoff, News Director, E! Entertainment Television, 5670 Wilshire
Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036, fax:  213.954.2621;
… MSNBC & NBC: Andrew Lack, News President, NBC Television Network, 30
Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112-0002, fax:  212.664.7234;
… Andrew Heyward, News President, CBS Television Network, 524 W. 57th St.,
New York, NY 10019-2902, fax:  212.975.9387;
… Richard Wald, Senior Vice President, ABC News, ABC Television Network, 77
W. 66th St., New York, NY 10023-6201, fax:  212.456.2381;
… Maynard Parker, Editor-in-Chief, Newsweek, 251 W. 57th St., New York, NY
10019-6999, fax:  212.445.5068, e-mail:  letters@newsweek.com.


Deseret News Is Mouthpiece for So-Called "Ex-Gay" Movement
On September 6, two days after a gay youth leader in Salt Lake City took
his own life, the Deseret News ran two blatantly propagandist articles on
the so-called "ex-gay" movement under the auspices of news. The primary
story is about Evergreen International, which is the Mormon version of the
radical Christian group Exodus. According to the story, the group was
formed "by a group of young men who struggled with homosexual tendencies
and wanted to help encourage each other to live gospel principles." The
article then promotes an upcoming Evergreen conference. While it neglects
to seriously examine the massive criticism of the so-called "ex-gay"
movement or quote anyone with a contrary view of this frequently damaging
and shame-inducing practice, it throws this bone: "While some people argue
that homosexuality is as inherent as race and can't be overcome, [group
leader] Pruden said successful transition is possible. In fact, the
founders of the organization have now made the transition, he said." It
quotes Pruden: "Homosexuality is a psychological condition that
professionals deal with [i.e. "cure"] very well in non-religious people."
The second story, by Scripps Howard News Service on other ex-gay
"ministries," while biased towards the voices of "ex-gays," offers a little
more balance. "Transformation ministries are highly controversial," it
allows, "and they make people angry. The medical and psychological
community says transformation methods don't work. Gay Christians and others
who support equal rights for homosexuals are offended by the idea that they
have to be straight to be saved." It also quotes a representative from
Metropolitan Community Church, saying, "'I believe we are created in the
image of God. Why would God heal us of that?'" Finally, the Deseret News
lists the phone number and a toll-free hotline for the Mormon ex-gay group
and another plug for the conference.

Seventeen-year-old Jacob Orozco, a gay youth leader who was to be the
president of the East High Gay-Straight Alliance this school year, killed
himself while living in a community where the overwhelming message about
being lesbian or gay is one of shame, sickness and sin. In the same city
where in 1996 the Salt Lake City School District banned all
extra-curricular activities rather than allow East High students to form a
support group for gay youth, the Deseret News continues the stigmatization
of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people through inaccurate and
aggressively biased journalism.

Demand that the Deseret News do a follow-up story on the many valid
communities of faith, medical and psychological professionals and
ex-ex-gays who have rejected the anti-gay radical religious movement as
less about love and faith and more about hate, myths and stereotypes. Let
them know that their irresponsible and unprofessional journalism is
partially responsible for the deaths of lesbian and gay Utahans unable to
survive a society that can be openly hostile towards instead of supportive
of them.
Contact:
… Don C. Woodward, Managing Editor, Deseret News, P.O. Box 1257, Salt Lake
City, UT 84110, fax:  801.237.2121, e-mail:  letters@desnews.com;
… Dan Thomasson, Bureau Chief, Scripps Howard News Service, 1090 Vermont
Ave. NW, 10th floor, Washington, DC 20005-4905, fax:  202.371.0773.


Intersex People Hidden Behind Potted Plants
An otherwise excellent September 3 ABC Prime Time Live story entitled "Boy
or Girl?" on intersex issues and the debate over medical genital mutilation
of intersex children ignored the voices of intersex activists and
misrepresented certain key facts. Featuring talking heads of doctors and a
mother who had struggled with the decision to have her child surgically
made a girl, the story examined "What can happen when doctors are forced to
play God," according to Diane Sawyer. While one pediatric surgeon who
opposed the controversial surgery was represented, a great deal more time
was spent with Dr. Gearhart, a pro-surgery advocate who pronounced certain
intersex children "boy" or "girl" during a slide presentation. Prime Time
Live failed to mention that Gearhart has always refused to engage in a
dialogue with intersex activists. In addition, the only adult intersex
person Prime Time Live presented was a man who was disguised by a large,
floppy hat,  dark lighting, a pseudonym and an altered voice. "By failing
to use footage of openly intersex activists which they had already filmed,
Prime Time Live cast the story in a sensational slant reminiscent of the
1967 CBS interview of a shame-filled homosexual hiding behind a potted
plant," said Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) Director Cheryl
Chase. In addition, the program failed to note the support resources now
available for intersex people. In an ISNA press release, psychologist Dr.
Howard Devore added, "It is unconscionable  to present this as a problem of
merely getting the sex right or wrong. Prime Time did all their viewers a
disservice by not informing them of the worldwide network of intersex
advocacy organizations and the availability of peer support for the option
of a healthy intersex identity."

Please urge Prime Time Live to do a follow-up story to allow intersex
people to speak for themselves, openly and honestly, and to place the story
in a context which acknowledges the strides made by intersex activists and
advocacy groups in the past five years.
Contact: Phyllis McGrady, Executive Producer, ABC Primetime Live, 147
Columbus Ave., 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10023, fax:  212.456.1246.


Who Has The Image Problem?
A misguided commentary in the September 8 Chicago Tribune claims "Gays Need
to Confront Their Image Problem." John McCarron, who defines himself as a
"straight, married-with-kids white guy who lives in the suburbs," says,
"almost everywhere one looks, gay life is being normalized [and]
legitimized. This is progress." But, he laments, "if only they'd get rid of
that garish Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. It's fun to cheer the freaks in
their fishnet stockings and falsies [and] watch the bare-chested boys
planting wet ones on each other's kissers. But it's also terribly
subversive to the far more important march that gays are making toward
social and legal equality." McCarron says the road to freedom forks in two
distinct paths: "One road is the way of martial monogamy, sexual restraint
and middle-class respectability," he says, claiming this is also the road
to civil rights for lesbians and gay men. "The other is a path lined by
bathhouses and leather bars, by serial sex and wear-it-on-your-sleeve
sensuality." This road is a "dead end." He says that society increasingly
sees sexual orientation as a class worthy of equality, while "sexual
promiscuity is still regarded [as] voluntary behavior worthy of public
disapprobation." McCarron feels, "gay America cannot have it both ways. Why
would any thoughtful homosexual participate in a circus-like event that, to
a large extent, only reinforces straight prejudices about the
gay-promiscuity link?"

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is not monolithic. We
are a complex network of individuals, many of whom are currently denied the
possibility of legal marriage in America, and some of whom are neither
monogamous, nor exhibit "sexual restraint," nor, for that matter, have the
economic means or desire to achieve "middle-class respectability." Pride is
more than a PR stunt to correct prejudices some people may have--it is a
time for all members of our community to celebrate who they are, and how
they define themselves. While some heterosexual people are uncomfortable
with segments of the community that fail to emulate them and even
"reinforce straight prejudices," asking gay people to give up that
diversity is like telling Chicanos not to speak Spanish at a Cinqo De Mayo
festival lest some white people think they cannot speak English. And then
there are the "circus-like" heterosexual events, such a Mardi Gras, wild
frat parties and singles bars which perhaps McCarron should urge fellow
straight people to abandon, lest a "straight-promiscuity link" deny them
basic civil rights. Finally, McCarron's portrait of Pride makes the same
mistake all-too-often made by the media: His tunnel vision excludes mention
of the PFLAG parents, the children of lesbian moms and gay dads, the gay
firefighters and the gay politicians.

Please let McCarron and the Chicago Tribune know that an embracing of the
diversity this country is built upon will clear up any "image problem" that
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people face-without layers of our
rich, thriving culture being lost in the process.
Contact: John McCarron, c/o The Chicago Tribune, P.O. Box 4041, Chicago, IL
60611-4041, fax:  312.222.3143, e-mail: tribletter@aol.com.


Philly Paper Ignores Key Versace Family Member
On September 8, a quiet New York memorial service for Gianni Versace was
attended by his life partner, but you wouldn't know it from the
Philadelphia Daily News' coverage. According to a September 10 story, the
service was for "family and friends. And what family -- what friends! In
addition to the designer's siblings Santa and Donatella, mourners included
Versace amici, customers and competitors, like Madonna, Whitney Houston,
Woody Allen, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Naomi Campbell."

Identifying these people as "family and friends" and not mentioning Antonio
D'Amico, Versace's partner of 11 years, dishonors Versace's life as an
openly gay man, the love shared by him and D'Amico and the relationships of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people everywhere.

Tell the Philadelphia Daily News that just like with straight people's
spouses and significant others, our partners should be considered "family,"
and to do otherwise is an insult to gay people and a glaringly inaccurate
portrayal of our lives and loves.
Contact: Brian Toolan, Managing Editor, Philadelphia Daily News, P.O. Box
7788, Philadelphia, PA 19101, fax: 215.854.5691, e-mail:
dailynews.opinion@phillynews.com.


SF Chronicle Looks Back At Transgender Films
In anticipation of the release of the critically acclaimed film Different
for Girls, the San Francisco Chronicle featured a September 6 article on
the history of transsexuals in film. "Kim, the modest secretary in
Different for Girls, isn't the first big-screen transsexual, but she's one
of the first whose gender reassignment and surgical history weren't treated
with freakish curiosity," it begins. Going back to "the dour biopic" The
Christine Jorgensen Story in 1970, the article notes that "the movie
manages to be simultaneously dull, lurid and embarrassed by itself." It
discusses Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, a 1971 movie about a transgender
serial killer, but fails to mention the far more popular Silence of the
Lambs (1991). Along with the works of John Waters and Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, PBS' Tales of the City (1994) and John Lithgow's
Oscar-nominated performance as Roberta Muldoon in The World According to
Garp (1982), it describes Terence Stamp as "demure and poignant" in The
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994).

As audiences around the country discover Different for Girls, which opened
September 12 in limited release, the Chronicle's placement of the films in
a historical context gives the multi-layered film even greater depth.

Please thank the San Francisco Chronicle for this brief history of film
representations of transsexuals.
Contact: Jerry Roberts, Managing Editor, San Francisco Chronicle, 901
Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103-2988, fax: 415.896.1107, e-mail:
chronletters@sfgate.com.


The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation.
GLAAD promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation in the media as
a means of
challenging homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual
orientation or identity.
Contact GLAAD by e-mail at glaad@glaad.org or by phone at
213.658.6775 (Los Angeles), 212.807.1700 (New York), 415.861.2244 (San
Francisco),
202.986.1360 (Washington, DC), 404.607.1204 (Atlanta) and 816.374.5927
(Kansas City)
Report defamation in the media by calling GLAAD's Toll-Free AlertLine!
1-800-GAY-MEDIA (1-800-429-6334)
Visit GLAAD's Web Site at http://www.glaad.org
"GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered
trademarks
of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc.