Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 15:45:45 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADAlert 10.31.97 GLAADALERT October 31, 1997 The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ABC Needs To Embrace Ellen Following two weeks of on-again, off-again parental advisory warnings, ABC reintroduced the warning for the October 29 episode of Ellen, and added insult to injury by badly dubbing over one phrase in a botched attempt to de-sex the show. The episode, which had been comically promoted by Ellen DeGeneres herself as "Ellen Kisses A Girl and Makes the Network Very Nervous," deals with Ellen's first date. During a conversation at a loud disco, Ellen tries to explain that she remembered it as a quiet bar. Her date can't hear her over the music. Ellen says, "I want to take you like a wild animal," thinking that her date can't hear her. The line dubbed over from the episode was in response to this, when the pair reached a quieter bar. Her date originally said, "I thought you wanted to take me like a wild animal." After the garbled dubbing, she said, "Besides, I've never dated a wild animal." When the parental advisory first appeared, Ellen DeGeneres, GLAAD and others condemned the warning as a double standard, maintaining that similar displays of same-sex affection on other television shows and vastly more explicit ones between heterosexual couples have not warranted a special advisory. Ellen is one of ABC's top-rated shows in a season of new programming which is floundering for the network. According to Neilsen, it has become one of the top 20 shows, and yet ABC is treating it as if the program is its dirty little secret. ABC's approach to the show seems schizophrenic: On one hand, it is profiting off of the controversy surrounding the show and the strong audience share Ellen garners due to its consistently high quality, clever writing and innovative storylines. On the other, ABC is trying to play it safe by hampering its own groundbreaking program with double-standard advisories and last-minute script switcheroos. As GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry noted earlier this week, the network is telling people that "dating and affection between members of the same sex is somehow akin to graphic sex, guns and gore, and so require extreme warning labels and special circumstances. In the past ABC has shown coverage and backbone for supporting Ellen. Now, it's time to follow through on commitment to fairness and drop the double standard. Ellen is a show all of America, including ABC, can be proud of." Tell ABC their efforts to create this history-making show are commendable, but enough is enough-Dump the double standard and embrace the show in all its diversity. Contact: … Jamie Tarses, Entertainment President, ABC, 2040 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90037, phone: 310.557.7777 (ask to be connected to the Audience Information Line), fax: 310.557.7679, e-mail: abcaudr@ccabc.com … Michael Eisner, Chairman and Dean Valentine, President of Network TV and Television Animation, The Walt Disney Company, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521, fax: 818.560.1930, e-mail (via website): http://www.disney.com/Mail Lesbian Bed Life on Mad About You While ABC places advisories on Ellen because of comedic kisses and casual courtship, the October 28 episode NBC's Mad About You featured the regular lesbian characters in bed together several times without any fuss or fanfare. On the episode, Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) can't get their baby to stop crying, so they call their new pediatrician in the middle of the night. The pediatrician calls Jamie's gynecologist, Joan (Suzie Plakson), who is Paul's sister Debbie's (Robin Bartlett) partner, to sarcastically thank her for recommending Paul and Jamie to him. Joan and Debbie are in bed when the call comes, and Debbie tries to call Paul to find out if the baby is okay, but inadvertently calls her and Paul's parents, Sylvia (Cynthia Harris) and Burt (Louis Zorich). They all become increasingly worried when they can't reach Paul and Jamie, and Debbie and the parents each go off in search of Paul, Jamie and the baby. When Sylvia calls trying to reach Debbie, Joan picks up the phone, asleep and says, "Mom?" Sylvia replies, "I'm not ready for you to call me that yet," and asks for the address of the pediatrician. Later in the night, Debbie calls Joan, who again asks, "Mom?" Debbie says, "I'm not ready for you to call me that yet," and also needs the pediatrician's address. Mad About You has consistently incorporated Debbie and Joan into plots since they Debbie came out last year, and has done so during an 8:00 pm prime time show. Unlike ABC's Ellen, which is on at 9:30 and faced severe warnings and panicked eleventh-hour rewordings, NBC seems to understand that such warnings should be based on content matter, not sexual orientation. Regardless of whether the couples in bed are gay or straight, NBC recognizes that it doesn't warrant audience restrictions unless there is graphic violence or sexually explicit material. Please thank Mad About You and applaud NBC's long-standing commitment to the quality representations of lesbians on Mad About You, and particularly for incorporating them into this episode without bias or fanfare. In addition, let ABC know that they should look to NBC for guidance on what defines--and doesn't define--"adult content." Contact: … Vic Levin, Mad About You, 9336 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232 … Warren Littlefield, President, NBC, 3000 West Alameda, Suite 214, Burbank, CA 91523 … Jamie Tarses, Entertainment President, ABC, 2040 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90037, phone: 310.557.7777 (ask to be connected to the Audience Information Line), fax: 310.557.7679, e-mail: abcaudr@ccabc.com BET Trips Up Taking Anti-Gay Winans Sisters to Teens While the October 29 BET Tonight featured a noteworthy discussion between gospel singers Angie and Debbie Winans and the National Lesbian and Gay Black Leadership Forum (NBLGLF) about the sisters' anti-gay song "It's Not Natural," Black Entertainment Television is planning on bringing Angie and Debbie back for a performance on Teen Summit, a show directed at black youth. The episode, which has already been recorded and which BET plans to air either November 8 or 15, has no representatives to counter the Winans' radical religious propaganda. According to NBLGLF Executive Director Keith Boykin, BET is also considering a two-hour televised town hall meeting on lesbian and gay issues, "if [BET] receives encouragement from our community." The Winans and their representatives refuse to meet with GLAAD or other concerned organizations. Angie and Debbie and their publicists at Capitol Entertainment have heavily promoted the song and are profiting from both the controversy and hate. As GLAAD reported earlier (GLAADAlert 10/17/96), while Angie and Debbie maintain that they "aren't bashing gays, they're bashing homosexuality," songs like these are used to justify not only discrimination, but hatred and violence. By working with two so-called "ex-gay" churches that claim to "change" lesbians and gay men into heterosexual, "Not Natural" becomes an insidious use of religion as a platform for bigotry, devaluing lesbians and gay men and attacking tolerant people everywhere. Capitol Entertainment's September 18 press release, "Angie and Debbie Winans Denounce Homosexuality With Controversial Gospel Song 'Not Natural,'" attests that the song "denounces homosexuality and attacks the gay movement." According to Boykin, "When asked about it, the publicists claimed the gay community started the controversy when in reality they started it by sending out this inflammatory news release before anyone had ever heard of Angie and Debbie or their song." Urge BET to pull the anti-gay song from Teen Summit before they imperil black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth through further alienation and attack by Angie and Debbie. In addition, urge them to move forward with plans to have a balanced and fair-minded town hall on lesbian and gay issues. Finally, write to the Winans' record company, and tell them that the company is serving as a megaphone for a cynical act of profiteering on the backs of gay people, their families and friends. Contact: … Deborah Tang, BET News Vice President, 1 BET Plaza 1900 W Place, NE, Washington, DC 20018-1211, email: betinfo@msn.com … Angie & Debbie Winans, 9229 Sunset Blvd., Suite 900, West Hollywood, CA 90069 … Vincent Young and Bill Carpenter, Capitol Entertainment, 1201 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005, fax: 202.986.7992 Trans-stupid Turn At Union Square On the Halloween (October 30) episode of Union Square, a new NBC show by Caroline in the City creator Fred Barron and Marco Pennette revolving around people who frequent a New York coffee shop, what could have potentially been an enlightening and humorous show on transgender issues devolved into a series of jokes leaving the transgender character as the butt of the joke. In the episode, a man dressed as a disheveled woman enters the coffee shop. Union Square regular Gabriella Diaz (Constance Marie) begins to talk to the new customer and finds out that he is dressed that way as a dare by his friends for Halloween. As they talk more, they both begin to find out that they have many things in common and decide to see each other again the next day. When the do meet again, Gabriella, much to her chagrin, finds that her date is still dressed as a woman. She reminds him that it isn't Halloween anymore and that she thought he was embarrassed last night because his friends dared him to dress up. He says, "Yes, as a floozy! This is the way I normally dress." Finally, when she asks why he is interested to her when he is gay, eavesdropping waitress Carrie (Christine Burke) tells her, "He's a crossdresser. He's not gay, he just likes to dress in women's clothing." Gabriella's date thanks Carrie for clarifying and says, "See, its all perfectly normal." Unfortunately, Carrie retorts, "Well, I didn't say that." From there the show turns from what could have been an educational show about transgender issues into cheap transphobic humor. Gabriella tries to overcome her fear of her dream date being a crossdresser, but everytime her date turns around, she makes off-hand comments about him that provoke the audience to laugh. In the end, she tries to leave the restaurant with him, but after someone cat calls to him, she runs back in the restaurant, screaming, "I can't do it." While the transgender character was a confident and proud person who is comfortable dressing in women's clothes, he is, in the end, the butt of the joke and Gabriella is the one with whom the viewers are intended to empathize. Please let Fred Barron and Marco Pennette know they were on the right track with such a confident and comfortable transgender character, but in the future, should make it an opportunity to use humor to educate that transgender people are people, not props for cheap laughs. Contact: Fred Barron and Marco Pennette, Executive Producers, Union Square, NBC Studios, 330 Bob Hope Drive, Burbank, CA 91523, e-mail: UnionSquare@nbc.com. Salt Lake Tribune Calls School Gag Order A "Disgrace" Following a federal lawsuit filed by Utah P.E. teacher and mother of two Wendy Weaver against the Nebo School District, saying she was illegally fired as volleyball coach for being a lesbian and that a district gag order violates her right to freedom of expression, the Salt Lake Tribune featured an October 24 editorial calling the antics of the district and school administrators a "disgrace." In July, the Spanish Fork High School (SPHS) principal fired her as coach despite 18 years of service, including four state titles, after discovering she is a lesbian. The district told Weaver "not to make comments, announcements or statements to students, staff members or parents regarding your homosexual orientation or lifestyle," threatening that if she did, it "may jeopardize [her] job and be cause for termination." The editorial begins, "Nebo School District and Spanish Fork High School administrators have given their students a model lesson in how not to treat a person with a sexual orientation different from the norm." It mentions that students of Weaver were generally perplexed by the actions of the alarmist adults, adding, "What could Nebo District and [SPHS] officials possibly have been thinking when they benched a successful coach for her sexual orientation and then compounded the matter with their bizarre gag order?...Her simple identity as a lesbian should be irrelevant to school administrators....[They] chose to judge her home life instead of her professional record, and they deserve all the opprobrium that derives from their shameful actions. They should rescind their cruel gag order and reinstate Weaver as the coach of next year's volleyball team." Serving as a textbook example of the need for legal protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, Weaver's case also highlights the particular difficulties lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender educators face at the hands of ignorant or outright bigoted officials. The Tribune's stand in a conservative and often intolerance state is both rational and courageous. Please commend the Salt Lake Tribune for their impassioned and well-reasoned opposition to anti-gay workplace discrimination. Contact: James E. Shelledy, Editor, Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, UT 84110-0867, fax: 801.237.2316, e-mail: letters@mail.sltrib.com Lifetime Paints Intimate Portrait of Love On October 22, Lifetime Television premiered a profile on openly lesbian breast cancer advocate Dr. Susan Love as part of its Intimate Portraits series. It tells the story of how Dr. Love, "the most famous breast cancer surgeon in America," initially resisted being a breast surgeon, fearing she was being pigeonholed into women's medicine. When she realized how little information women were receiving, however, "what started out as a career became a mission," and she has become a tireless advocate for increased awareness, access to health care and political action relating to breast cancer and women's health issues. In telling Dr. Love's story, Lifetime fully incorporates her family, from her father and brother discussing how they reacted when she first came out to them as lesbian and grew to embrace her sexual orientation, to her longtime partner and child. Without sensationalizing her sexual orientation, Lifetime truly provides an intimate portrait of Dr. Love by integrating her identity as a lesbian into the many other facets of her life. The program serves as a model for how to do a biography of someone who happens to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Please let Lifetime know that it is affirming to see someone as important as Dr. Susan Love profiled in such an in-depth and sensitive way. Contact: Dawn Tarnofsky, Programming Senior Vice President, Lifetime, 309 West 49th St., New York, NY 10019, fax: 212.957.4264 GLAAD Update: Sitting Down with the New York Post On October 28, GLAAD met with the editor, managing editor and metro editor of the New York Post to discuss ongoing issues regarding the tabloid's coverage of the lesbian and gay community. The meeting was prompted by a letter GLAAD sent to the editor, Ken Chandler, regarding columnist Ray Kerrison's scathing (and inaccurate) diatribe against the GLAAD-award-winning documentary It's Elementary. GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry and Associate Communications Director Liz Tracey met with the three. While exploring the overall coverage of the community, which has often been either lacking or slanted, GLAAD made specific requests of the Post editors: 1) to solicit input from the lesbian and gay community on stories and ideas; 2) to print opposing viewpoints to columnists on occasion; and 3) to incorporate coverage of the lesbian and gay community into the paper's ongoing coverage of the city as a whole. While obviously committed to publishing a daily with a conservative angle, the editors at the New York Post seemed attentive, and stated their intentions to follow through on GLAAD's suggestions. Please write the New York Post, and thank them for meeting with GLAAD. Also remind them that fair and accurate coverage of gay men and lesbians in a major metropolitan area isn't catering to special interests--It's simply good journalism. Contact: Ken Chandler, Editor, New York Post, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York NY 10036, fax: 212 930 8540; e-mail letters@nypost.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), and 404.607.1204 (Atlanta) 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) glaad@glaad.org TO REPORT DEFAMATION IN THE MEDIA - Call GLAAD's Alertline at 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or go to the GLAAD Web Site at www.glaad.org and report through our Alertline Online. 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