Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 08:08:57 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADAlert 11.26.97 GLAADALERT November 26, 1997 The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, GLAADAlert is coming out two days earlier this week. In addition, a special World AIDS Day GLAADLines will come out early so that reporters will have time to prepare related stories for December 1. Thursday's "Ellen" Watch will be distributed on Monday, December 1. USA Today Pokes Around TV's Gay Male Kissing Closet The November 24 USA Today featured an article by Kevin Gray about the reasons that while Ellen and other shows have featured women kissing, gay men can not seem to get to first base on network TV. "Men have kissed on the small screen, but usually in the service of a big laugh, with a horrified straight man on the receiving end. TV has yet to depict a gay male romance with the kind of emotional force and genuine intimacy granted the fictitious Ellen Morgan," Gray writes. Spin City's Michael Boatman says "'it's threatening to the male psyche,'" while Rhona Berenstein, director of film studies at the University of California, adds, "'Male viewers can't handle it. We still live in a culture where it's taboo for men to be physical and affectionate.'" Gray also notes that, "Movies have more readily tackled gay relationships, from The Birdcage to In & Out. But that's because the longer format of film allows character development, Berenstein says. Television, with its 22-minute episodes, 'is all about surfaces,' she says. 'Everybody becomes a stereotype on TV.' Still, TV has outpaced film in its sheer variety of gay characters, if only because of economics. Movies costs tens of millions to make. One flop means a big loss. But TV can weave gays in and out, at most risking the loss of an advertiser for a couple of weeks." The sheer numbers of characters television can allow may not bring gay male kisses into America's living rooms anytime soon, Gray says, but "gay advocates appreciate that Ellen makes it OK to be gay and praise the well-rounded portrayals of gays on TV. 'With the number of gay characters rising, we're getting more diversity, which is important because the gay community is so diverse,' says Chastity Bono, GLAAD entertainment director." Please thank USA Today and Kevin Gray for examining the hurdles society still faces towards allowing gay men the same representations of love and intimacy that network television affords heterosexuals-or even lesbians. Contact: Letters to the Editor and Kevin Grey, USA Today, 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22229, fax: 703.247.3108, e-mail: editor@usatoday.com. Radical Southern Baptists Make Ray Kerrison Dizzy In his November 25 column, the New York Post's Ray Kerrison perverts a 60 Minutes story on Disney CEO Michael Eisner to peddle his own anti-gay agenda. In "Boycott Begins to Make Dizzy Disney Boss Bend," Kerrison claims Michael Eisner was forced to do the interview because of the pressure exacted by the Southern Baptist Convention's vote to boycott Disney because of what Kerrison calls "trying to normalize a lifestyle that is abnormal, deviant, unhealthy and dangerous." Eisner states that Disney profits have grown 20 percent in the past year, and that "[w]e're not pushing any agenda. We're pushing for tolerance and understanding, expansiveness." Kerrison uses his column to serve as soapbox to the conservative critics of Disney, from anti-gay film reviewer Michael Medved to The Catholic League (a radical religious organization) to Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. After aping the American Family Association's claim that the 60 Minutes interview was "slanted," and that the interview was an example of "why Americans 'despise and mistrust' the national media," the column closes by stating that the film Priest and ABC's Nothing Sacred were "[a] vile assault on Mother Teresa as she is carried to her resting place." The prospect of hammering the media, and lesbians and gay men seems to have made Kerrison dizzy with poor reasoning. Offering benefits to the same-sex partners of Disney employees is about equal treatment, and does nothing to affect people who are not receiving the benefits. Representing diversity is about inclusion, and expanding the definition of "family-oriented" entertainment, not limiting it to the narrow-minded views of a small group of anti-gay zealots. Kerrison's disingenuous attempt to "report" Eisner's supposed "buckling" under the pressure of boycott, is a desperate attempt at damage control for radical religious groups. His desperation reveals how the busted boycott does nothing but prove how utterly marginal they are to the concerns and lives of normal, fair-minded Americans. No amount of creative spin, whether from Kerrison or the AFA, can conceal that fact. Write the New York Post, and encourage them to balance their wild-eyed radical columnists with a broader range of opinion instead of employing the same old tired anti-gay hacks. Contact: Mark Kalech, Managing Editor, New York Post, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-8790, fax: 212.930.8540, e-mail: mkalech@nypost.com. Washington Post "Gay Chic" Mired in Misconceptions A November 22 Washington Post STORY?? entitled "Gay Chic" raises many interesting questions about the "'normalization' of gay and lesbian life in America," but ultimately rests on some major false assumptions. "Less than a generation ago, when most baby boomers were teens, homosexuals lived furtive and frightened lives as social outcasts and sexual criminals. They were hassled and hauled in by the cops, depicted in the mainstream press as perverts and sickos, purged from the government as security risks and precariously situated in the private economy," writer Richard Harwood says. [Today] "there are no ripples or gasps when politicians, businessmen, celebrities and athletes come out of the closet. Gay studies is taught in many of our schools, and provides material for welcoming sermons from the pulpit. Gays hold seats in Congress....The media, once vigilantes in anti-homosexual campaigns, have conspicuously switched sides during the past decade or so. News organizations now root out and expose homophobes, crusade for tolerance and gay-rights laws and recruit gay journalists. The television networks routinely depict gays in a sympathetic light. Demographers have known for years that American homosexuals on the whole are a very affluent slice of the population.... The average income for gay and lesbian households is estimated at more than $55,000 a year, compared with about $40,000 a year for households in the general population." The story paints a curious and false picture of the political and cultural landscapes faced by lesbian and gay Americans today. Phenomenal progress has been made by gay Americans towards full inclusion in society. But there is a long, hard road ahead, and Harwood dismisses just how far we have to go. No gay or lesbian politician can run a campaign without facing extreme bias from detractors merely on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Only a handful of athletes have come out, fearful of the very real hardships that openly gay athletes can face in a highly conservative arena of public life. Celebrities coming out are still so rare that someone like Ellen DeGeneres announcing they are gay is exceptional enough to warrant the cover of Time. The media, which has made significant progress towards fair, accurate and inclusive treatment of gay people, still routinely misrepresents us as well, most notably seen in the way that the media covered the Andrew Cunanan story, as well as the fact that simple hand-holding among lesbians warrants a "parental advisory warning" from ABC while even sex between heterosexuals does not face nearly the same scrutiny. GLAADAlert every week recounts grossly inaccurate media representations of our lives, families and diversity. Lastly, Harwood relies on marketing studies bent on proving the profitability of a "gay market" and geared toward documenting wealthy, primarily white, primarily male gay people when determining the "average income for lesbian and gay couples" (see GLAADAlert, 2.7.97). More fully representative studies of the economic state of lesbians and gay men, such as University of Maryland, College Park, economist Lee Badgett's recent survey indicates that lesbian and bisexual women earn less than straight women and that gay men tend to earn less than heterosexual men. Let the Washington Post know that Harwood's glossy treatment of gay people goes from oversimplification of the contemporary struggles faced in every single area he cites to outright misrepresentation of our economic status. In doing so, his careless words endanger lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender efforts to find equal treatment and footing within American society by failing to acknowledge the very real challenges that we still face in all areas. Contact: Stephen Rosenfeld, Op-Ed Deputy Editor, Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071-0002, fax: 202.334.5269, e-mail: rosenfeldm@waspost.com. "Because She Cleaned Out Her Closet" The December 1997 issue of Vanity Fair includes the magazine's annual "Hall of Fame," which this year includes openly gay actress Ellen DeGeneres. Vanity Fair picked the 35 men and women, because they were "standouts [who] made the world stop and watch." DeGeneres, who is featured in a sexy two-page photo spread by celebrity fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz, made the magazine's list because "she cleaned out her closet...and not only converted a so-so sitcom into a national fishbowl but looked replenished as a performer-years of tension were released from her face." Please thank Vanity Fair for recognizing not only DeGeneres, but the virtues of coming out. Contact: Chris Garrett, Managing Editor, Vanity Fair, 350 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017-3704, fax: 212.880.6707, e-mail: vfmail@vf.com. Chicago Tribune Slaps "Silliness in the Senate" On November 22, the Chicago Tribune editorial entitled, "More Silliness in the Senate" rolls its eyes at two senators' blockade of the appointment of openly gay philanthropist James Hormel to be the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. "Luxembourg is one of the world's smallest nations, and the U.S. ambassador there is one of the least demanding postings in the foreign service. If anything James Hormel, a businessman, lawyer and philanthropist, would seem overqualified for the assignment," it begins. "But Hormel's nomination has been put on hold because he is openly gay and an activist for homosexual causes....The basic issue is this: It is unfair and counterproductive to judge nominees for government office exclusively on the basis of their sexual orientation. The government would be deprived of the talent, dedication and energy of too many people." After listing many of Hormel's impressive accomplishments, the Tribune sums up, "Surely that background qualifies him to be envoy to a sleepy little country. If there are no objections beyond his homosexuality, Hormel should get the job." Please thank the Chicago Tribune for calling senatorial silliness what it is. Contact: Ann Marie Lipinski, Managing Editor, Chicago Tribune, PO Box 4041, Chicago, IL 60611-4041, fax: 312.222.2598, e-mail: tribletter@aol.com. Ellen and Elton Are Fascinating People On December 2 ABC will air Barbara Walters' The 10 Most Fascinating People of 1997, which will feature two of today's premiere openly gay superstars. Singer Elton John and actor Ellen DeGeneres will be interviewed by Walters, among political, scientific, sports and other entertainment figures. John will discuss the loss of his good friends Princess Diana and Gianni Versace, the openly gay fashion designer. DeGeneres will discuss her history making year as television's first and only lesbian or gay lead character and her own coming out process. Columnist Liz Smith reports that DeGeneres tells Walters, "there are kids that are beaten up, killed, who commit suicide because they're gay, and that happens from thinking there is something wrong with it. I am becoming a bit more of an activist." The GLAAD Media Award-winning Walters has made an unprecedented move by choosing two open and high-profile members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Please check out Barbara Walters' latest special, and tell her what you think of the show. Contact: Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie, Executive Producer, The Barbara Walters Specials, 825 7th Ave., 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10019-6014, fax: 212.456.1849, e-mail: gebbieb@abc.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) Feel free to pass GLAADAlert on to friends, family and associates! GLAADAlert may be freely distributed and reprinted in all forms of media under the condition that any text used carry the full attribution of "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)." 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