Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 20:40:16 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADAlert August 20, 1998 GLAADALERT--August 20, 1998 The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Index: 1) Unbalanced Cover: "Gay For Life?"/GLAAD Meets With Newsweek 2) A Compassionate View From the Other Side of the Closet Door 3) Lesbian Lives on ABC.com 4) AP Still Pasting "Victim" Label on People With AIDS 5) From Kentucky: Plain Speaking and Common Sense 6) Deconstructing Homophobia 7) GLAADAlert Reminder: Serving in Silence to Be Re-Aired 1) Unbalanced Cover: "Gay For Life?" GLAAD Meets With Newsweek The newsmagazine presented three pieces Aug. 17: A lead story, "Can Gays 'Convert?'" an attempt to examine the debate over "conversion therapy;" a middle piece, "Battling Backlash," attempting to explore the nation's acceptance of lesbian and gay citizens, and a third, an opinion piece by James Collard, editor In chief of OUT magazine. Joan M. Garry, GLAAD Executive Director, and Jennifer H. Einhorn, GLAAD Director of Communications met with the three writers and the assistant managing editor of Newsweek to convey their deep concern with the unbalanced nature of this high-profile cover story. While Newsweek acknowledges receiving a tremendous amount of response to their cover story, they also acknowledge that GLAAD was the only formal meeting the magazine took to discuss concerns. The meeting took place as scheduled despite the unexpected and unprecedented televised message by the president the prior evening, following his grand jury testimony. Garry and Einhorn focused the meeting on GLAAD's concern with the story's particular photo images and lack of comment from appropriate lgbt leaders. The lead story begins with writers John Leland and Mark Miller taking readers to a Washington, D.C., "ex-gay" support group meeting. It then discusses the conservative coalition's recent ad campaign and states that "gay advocates fumed" and the "mainstream psych community bridled" at the ads' claims. While the story does state that "Last year, the American Psychological Association officially declared 'reparative therapy' scientifically ineffective and possibly harmful," the story also reported that, "the public is less convinced. In a new Newsweek poll, 56 percent said gays could become straight." The second story, "Battling Backlash" by Marc Peyser, asks, "After years of remarkably fast progress, gays are facing a new set of barriers. Where are the lines of tolerance being drawn?" The article says, "Straight people generally accept what might be called gay civil rights, but they get queasy when they view the issue in terms of morality and taboo sexuality." Peyser concludes by stating, "The morality issue may explain why heterosexuals find same-sex marriage to be the most unacceptable item on the gay-rights agenda." GLAAD took issue with many of the photos Newsweek chose, two in particular. The staged cover shot featured a smiling and delightfully happy couple, John and Anne Paulk, among the most visible "ex-gays." The photo was punctuated with props of domesticity including bacon and eggs (really!). The photos used by Newsweek to depict gay men, however, were chosen with little thought. To demonstrate a point about Americans being intolerant of overt male homosexuality, the magazine chose a photo of bare-chested men at a parade, their arms draped around one another. Newsweek easily could have chosen an image of two men in an intimate and loving embrace. Furthermore, and perhaps most distressing, was the magazine's selection of a photo attempting to portray a man who rejected conversion therapy and whom now, Newsweek said, is "partnered with a man and secure in his faith in God." This photo, of minister James Campbell, depicts a frowning and rigidly posed man. Nowhere in this seven-page spread is there any image of lesbians and gay men shown with their families or children. After a large feature conspicuously lacking in comment from leaders in the lesbian and gay movement (with the exception of Kevin Jennings, Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), readers found a full-page opinion piece from Collard. The OUT magazine editor did not address, in the least, the topic of the previous seven pages. His thesis, there should be more healthy debate within the lesbian and gay community is worthy of airing and of vigorous discussion -- but not in this issue. Among the challenges of publishing news is that everything counts: text, photos, captions, headlines, placement. All these disparate elements work together to impart not only the facts but also the impressions readers take with them -- impressions that can remain long after the facts have blurred from memory. Accordingly, Newsweek's cover story package disappoints sharply on several fronts. The article includes informed viewpoints sharply critical of "reparative therapy" -- but the magazine's construction, word choice, headlines and photos are misleading. Newsweek stresses that in its own poll, 56% of the general public thinks lgbt persons can change their orientation. Groups such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force also have conducted surveys on many of the same topics, yet Newsweek made no mention of these polls in this article. Further, Newsweek did not place the phrase "gay political lobby" in quotation marks, thereby implying that the magazine believes there is such an agenda. Finally, Collard's piece "Leaving the Gay Ghetto," is a serviceable explanation of a controversial position the author took in an earlier public forum. Collard wrote and submitted this column to Newsweek independently of the cover story project. GLAAD found it unacceptable and startling that Newsweek would place his column immediately following seven pages of photos and text discussing "conversion therapies." Certainly, those elements create the expectation that Collard had been offered that space to reply to and refute the extremists who dominated the previous pages. Kathy Deveny, Newsweek assistant managing editor, also had a follow-up phone conversation with Einhorn. While GLAAD and Newsweek did not reach overall consensus on their disagreements, the media advocacy organization nonetheless felt it was important and fair for GLAAD constituents to hear directly from the magazine. Deveny agreed; portions of her comments to GLAAD follow: "Newsweek has a long history of covering gay rights and the movement in all its forms and we're proud of that coverage. I stand behind this story, as we worked very hard to put this into good context, and we'll try harder to do that." Deveny agreed with GLAAD's concerns regarding some of the photo choices. Regarding the image of bare-chested men, she said that "a variety of pictures could have made that point. We are limited to images we have available. We used those images not to represent a typical moment but to illustrate that this is where straight people draw a line for their tolerance. Newsweek is not advocating that point but demonstrating where the country's tolerance ends." "Regarding James Collard's piece, we often have tail pieces to provide another perspective. Not by any means was that piece meant to be a rebuttal of the package. It was never intended to be that at all. We tried in each piece to provide both sides and tried to put conversion therapy in context, talking to prominent mental health professionals whose comments we included." Please express to Newsweek your deep concerns about the lack of balance in the text of these stories. Explain how the lack of care exercised in photo selection serves to promote stereotypes that can harm lesbians and gay men, instead of accurately portraying the strength and diversity of our community. Point out that Newsweek's handling of these stories resulted in presenting a decidedly slanted look at an issue of crucial concern to million of Americans. Contact: John Capouya, Society Section, Newsweek, 251 W. 57th St., NY, NY 10019, fax: 212.445.4120, e-mail: letters@newsweek.com (include name, address and phone number) 2) A Compassionate View From the Other Side of the Closet Door The premise of San Jose Mercury News staff writer Melinda Sacks' story was simple: when one spouse "comes out," the impact on his or her partner can be intense and traumatic. Sacks quotes a man identified as Edward, 47, a computer consultant, as saying, "'The people who come out of the closet feel liberated. The people who are left behind feel devastated. From the straight spouse's point of view, we're the ones left in the closet.'" The writer interweaves individuals' personal stories with perspectives from psychologists and others. She quotes Nan Breedlove, 54, a Walnut Creek mother of three daughters, as explaining, "'Coming out to my husband was horribly painful. You make a huge change in your life and you hurt people you love. But for me, it was increasingly a matter of survival.'" Citing the federal census and other statistics, Sacks writes, "Researchers estimate that more than 2 million heterosexual Americans either have lived or currently live with a gay, lesbian or bisexual spouse." Sacks explores the impact on such spouses when their partners come out-including the little- published statistic that one in three of such couples decide to try to stay together. The article says psychologist Amity Pierce Buxton found that "straight spouses often hid their situation from other family members and friends." The writer also cites psychologist Pat Sherman as saying that children in such families often cope better than the straight spouses. Sacks concludes by recounting the difficulty some spouses have encountered finding support groups or other individuals in similar situations - then attaches a list of such organizations, including contact information. This topic easily could have been allowed to veer into suggestions of homophobia; appearing critical of lgbt individuals who acknowledge their sexual orientation. Instead, Sacks presents a finely balanced, sensitive and comprehensive examination of a seldom-reported -- but widely experienced -- situation. She succeeds in conveying both that for many spouses, coming out is a matter of survival, and that for many of their heterosexual partners, it causes intense pain. Please convey to the San Jose Mercury News your appreciation of such thorough reporting and finely balanced writing, which examines-as opposed to sensationalizes-a sensitive issue now confronting an estimated two million Americans. Please also express your deep appreciation for the significant public service the newspaper performed in attaching a list of support groups, with contact information, for those grappling with this issue. Contact: David Yarnold, Managing Editor, San Jose Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190-0001, fax: 408.288.8060, e-mail: letters@sjmercury.com 3) Lesbian Lives on ABC.com An Aug. 9 report on ABCNEWS.com, the online news branch of ABC News, includes an advice column by financial advisor Adriane G. Berg. Her subjects: Carol and Laura, a lesbian couple living in Dallas. The headline reads, "Financial Makeover: Partners for Life." Berg wrote, "Carol is 50 years old. She considers her relationship with Laura a marriage partnership, and she wants them to have the same financial rights as legally married couples." Carol listed these as among her financial goals: "'To be able to retire at 65 to 70 and not have to depend on my children. To find a way to make as much as possible from what we can invest. As a lesbian couple, we need to protect ourselves in areas heterosexual couples are protected by law.'" Berg began her advice to the pair by stating, "That the couple in that bedroom is lesbian makes no difference." She recapped several financial planning mainstays for gay couples, such as executing mutual powers of attorney. Then she added, "They can adopt! Yes, it is perfectly legal for Carol to adopt Laura, making her an inheritress, family member and beneficiary by law, as well as final arbiter of her health care decisions. Although the law deprives gay couples of standing to marry, it allows them to make a legal commitment to family through adult adoption." Berg's column acknowledged that the two women are partners and plan to remain so. The financial advisor's recommendations proceeded from the assumption that the women wished, where it possible, to obtain the legal privileges of marriage. While not intended to be encyclopedic, Berg's advice provided same-gender couples a rich introduction to the many financial planning options now available to them. This is almost a textbook example of the most sophisticated type of news coverage. It includes lgbt persons in a story not specifically about an lgbt issue. Please thank ABCNEWS.com for this matter-of-fact recognition that same-gender couples have relationships as valid and as potentially long-lasting as do their heterosexual counterparts - and that they share similar concerns, including the achievement of financial security. Contact: ABC News, 47 W. 66th St., NY, NY 10023, feedback form: http://www.abcnews.com/service/abc_contactus.html 4) AP Still Pasting "Victim" Label on People With AIDS The Associated Press (AP) reported Aug. 14 that for the first time in more than 17 years, San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter "contained no obituaries of AIDS victims." The AP report conveys the excitement among the weekly's staff about the landmark event, noting that the jubilant front-page headline reads, "No obits," and that an accompanying editorial was titled, "Death takes a holiday." The AP report traces the gradual decline of AIDS obituaries at the San Francisco publication to the introduction of protease inhibitors and other new anti-AIDS drugs. AP also stresses that the lack of AIDS obituaries for one edition of one newspaper in no way signifies that the epidemic is over. It quotes Mike Salinas, news editor, as saying, "It doesn't mean that there is no AIDS. What it does mean is that people with AIDS are living longer and that we're smarter about the human immune system.'' The report, while putting this small milestone in its proper perspective, skillfully conveys the jubilation it sparked at a publication whose pages, for more than a decade, have chronicled the draconian toll of AIDS. Sadly, the report still prominently refers to those with AIDS as "victims." Please express to the Associated Press your thanks for its recognition of the importance of this event and for its sensitivity to the concerns of medical and social service care providers that news reports not inaccurately portray this dangerous pandemic as "over." However, also please explain to the wire service that referring to someone with AIDS as a "victim" needlessly and unfairly stigmatizes and marginalizes that person. Contact: Daniel A. Day, Bureau Chief, AP, San Francisco Bureau, 1390 Market St., #318, San Francisco, CA 94102-5402, fax: 415.552.9430 5) From Kentucky: Plain Speaking and Common Sense "Homosexuality is the last legal discrimination," read the headline on the Aug. 9 column by Ellen Sadenwasser in the Owensboro (Ken.) Messenger-Inquirer. Discrimination "is still practiced covertly in this country to satisfy various prejudices in many areas of life," she writes. "But under no circumstances -- employment, housing, job benefits -- is it practiced so overtly and, in most places, under full protection of the law, as against gays and lesbians." This alone, she says, "should serve as refutation to groups who've asserted recently, in full-page newspaper ads and other forums, that gays can 'fix' themselves ... Who would actively seek out a way of life bringing denied mortgages, denied benefits, denied custody of your own children? It is not the orientation itself that brings these penalties but the prejudice against it." Sadenwasser says the groups paying for the ads "have plenty of Bible verses to back them up. Unfortunately for them, our law is based not on the Bible but the Constitution...Religion was used by some of these same conservatives to oppose the legal codification of equality for women and blacks. While they were wrong to so vociferously fight change on those counts, they've assured us, they're right this time around. Those of us, gay or straight, who count among our friends and loved ones the only Americans yet facing legally sanctioned discrimination owe it to those who began the fight to see it through." The column offers a forceful refutation of the ad campaign that extremists have targeted against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons (lgbt) - and she does so in the clear tones and lingering resonance of plain common sense. The columnist strongly makes a simple point - but one almost universally overlooked by much larger media outlets: that the lgbt community is the only group in America still to face legal discrimination. Please thank Ellen Sadenwasser and the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer for this direct and directly-voiced commentary, which throws a bucketful of much needed cool rationality on extremists' heated rhetoric. Contact: Robert H. Ashley, Editor, and Ellen Sadenwasser, Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, PO Box 1480, Owensboro, KY 42302, fax: 502.685.3446 6) Deconstructing Homophobia In an Aug. 18 column on the Scripps Howard/Nando Net online newspaper, Bruce Hilton refutes, point by point, major arguments for discriminating against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons. Hilton, who identifies himself as father of a gay son, writes, "As a member of the United Methodists' four-year national study committee on homosexuality, I learned that there have been gay people in every time and place -- but that not all cultures made them the objects of hate... If prejudice against gays isn't universal, why do we have it? Here are a few of the reasons." Among his responses: … "What people say kids pick up parents' off-hand comments or silences. In company that would frown on racial jokes, homosexual stories are still OK. … "Abuse of the Bible...Jesus said nothing worth quoting about same-sex love, judging from the gospel writers. However, he often spoke harshly to self- righteous and judgmental people. … "The need for scapegoats. For more than 70 years, the Russian communists served us as a unifying, common enemy... It's no coincidence that a new wave of homophobia began after the Berlin wall fell. We needed somebody to blame for the confusions of our day. … "Fear-mongering is profitable. Sophisticated fund-raisers have learned that fear of gays pays." Hilton, who also is the National Center for Bioethics director, concludes, "The day will come when we look back on this homophobic era.. and ask, 'How could we have been so dumb?'" This writer -- father of a gay son, four-year member of his church's committee to study homosexuality, director of a center dealing with professional ethics issues -- speaks with solid authority. His writing is the more persuasive for its unemotional but powerful reasoning. His column serves as a clip-and-save guide to answering many of the extremists' arguments against gay civil rights, while providing on-point perspective to the current overarching debate. Please express to Bruce Hilton your appreciation for his well-crafted column debunking the "reasons" for opposing gay civil rights, and to Scripps Howard/Nando Net for posting the piece on its Internet site. Contact: feedback form: http://www.nandomedia.com/feedback.html 7) GLAADAlert Reminder: Serving in Silence to Be Re-Aired On Saturday, August 22, NBC will re-air its 1995 Emmy-winning Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story. The made-for-TV movie chronicles the highly decorated Army colonel's discharge from military duty following her 1992 refusal to lie about her sexual orientation during a routine security clearance interview. The film, which stars Glenn Close as Cammermeyer, was produced by Barbra Streisand. Editor's Note: GLAAD is aware of, and deeply concerned about, recent broadcast and published remarks by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, in connection with same-gender marriage and domestic partner benefits. GLAAD has expressed its concern directly to Dr. Laura about these remarks, and continues in discussions with her and her producers. GLAAD will continue to monitor the situation and report on details. Correction: In the Aug. 7 GLAADAlert, Forrest Sawyer of ABC Nightline was misidentified. GLAAD regrets the error. 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 (LA), 212.807.1700 (NY), 415.861.2244 (San Francisco), 202.986.1360 (DC), 404.876.1398 (Atlanta) and 816.756.5991 (Kansas City) Feel free to pass GLAADAlert on to friends, family and associates! Report defamation in the media by calling GLAAD's Toll-Free AlertLine! 1-800-GAY-MEDIA (1-800-429-6334) Visit GLAAD Online at http://www.glaad.org "GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc. 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