Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 20:52:07 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADALERT-September 3, 1998 GLAADALERT-September 3, 1998 The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation GLAADAlert Index: 1) 100 Candles on RuPaul's Cake 2) Taking a Close Look at How New "Family" Networks Define "Family" 3) Teen People Investigates "Busting the Gay Bias" 4) Knight-Ridder Columnist Has Words of Wisdom For Mother of Gay Son 5) Ms. Peers Into One of the Country's Deepest Closets: Lesbians in Sports 6) Boston Globe Finds That Sometimes, Just Being Gay Isn't Enough 7) Smile When You Hand Over That Teddy Bear, Pardner 8) San Jose Mercury News Chronicles the Slow Struggle for Transgender Rights 1) 100 Candles on RuPaul's Cake RuPaul, the fierce drag diva of late night talk TV, soon will conclude the current season of The RuPaul Show on cable's VH1, marking 100 episodes of the often outrageous and funny gabfest. As of now, VH1 has not renewed the show for another year. Since premiering Oct. 12, 1996, the show has welcomed an eclectic mix of guests, including Cher, Dennis Rodman, Charo, Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Rivers, Nell Carter, Sandra Bernhard and k.d. lang. The program will finish its current season with three new Wednesday night episodes - on Sept. 9 (super-model Veronica Webb, Gary Coleman and Dionne Warwick), Sept. 16 (Christina "Mommie Dearest" Crawford, Mary Jo Buttafucco and Gloria "I Will Survive" Gaynor) and Sept. 23 (Laura "Gloria" Branigan, and the "Wonder"-ful Lynda Carter). Throughout the past two years, The RuPaul Show has seen the host reveal his more fabulous side, with the biting humor of a drag queen, his open expression of his sexual orientation and a strong sense of camp. But compassion also has been displayed in episodes including one entitled "The Family Show," in which Ru featured footage from his family's reunion and interviewed his three sisters. That episode was nominated for a 1998 GLAAD Media Award. By continuing to produce and air The RuPaul Show, VH1 has demonstrated a commitment to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and has sent a message saying that its issues are to be openly celebrated and explored. Through its efforts, television has become more educational, engaging and entertaining. Please tell VH1 how much you value The RuPaul Show and encourage the network to renew the show. Also, check out this season's final three episodes. Contact: John Sykes, President, VH1, 1515 Broadway, NY, NY 10036, fax: 212.258.7955, e-mail: shows@vh1.com (write "RuPaul Show" in the subject line) 2) Taking a Close Look at How New "Family" Networks Define "Family" What, precisely, is a "typical American family" - and how do you get its members to watch television together? According to the St. Petersburg Times' Eric Deggans, the answer could spell the difference between success and failure for two new multi-million-dollar TV networks. The new networks are Pax TV, which premiered Aug. 31, and Fox Family Channel, which began broadcasting two weeks ago. Pax TV is the $500 million creation of Christian media mogul and Home Shopping Network founder Lowell "Bud" Paxson; the Fox venture used to be Pat Robertson's Family Channel. Pax TV - originally called Pax Net - encountered controversy when it ran an ad in some national publications stating, "Some so-called creative people seem to be using what was once the family viewing hour to peddle every kind of alternative language and lifestyle to our kids." In addition, Deggan writes that Pax TV promotional consultant Steve Sohmer said, "I did not know ... that those words together were a buzz word." The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Sohmer had said, "When I wrote that, I was thinking about the subject of casual sex. That's exactly what I was writing about." - But "many critics didn't buy his explanation," states Deggans. Pax TV's schedule "reveals series that seem overwhelmingly devoted to the old-style, Eurocentric definition of a nuclear family - leaving open the question of whether interracial families, gay families, minority families and immigrant families will find their values reflected in Pax TV's vision of American family values." According to Pax TV's website, its line-up does include a number of historically lesbian- and gay-inclusive programs, including Touched by an Angel and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which have each featured episodes which include gay male characters. Deggans lasers in on concerns about the new network's inclusiveness. He questions whether Pax TV will present a bleached and constricted image of the American family to the viewing public. Please convey to the St. Petersburg Times the importance of Deggans' thorough reporting and identification of potential concerns with a network aiming to beam its version of American family values into 50 percent of American television-watching homes. Contact: Neil Brown, Managing Editor, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, fax: 813.893.8675, e-mail: letters@sptimes.com 3) Teen People Investigates "Busting the Gay Bias" Robert and Daniel were childhood best friends in the dusty California farm town of Ceres. That was before Robert, now 18, announced two years ago that he's gay. However, in the October issue of Teen People Magazine, Daniel tells writer Suzanne Marmion, "I really don't like him that much." Such reactions prompted Robert and his close friend Jillian Sutherlin to lobby and finally win school officials' approval to form E Pluribus, a gay-straight alliance. "But that attitude of acceptance has not been adopted by this conservative Christian community," Marmion writes. The Ceres Courier ran a front-page article, then for three months published readers' complaints about the lunch-time club. The publicity drew a visit from the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, who talked with Ceres religious leaders about how to eliminate the group. Marmion quotes Jillian as saying, "It's very hurtful when you look at the newspaper every day and see that someone doesn't want you in town [or] in school." But Marmion notes that club members see they're making a difference. One example: For the first time this year, the high school sold prom tickets to same-sex couples. "We won," Marmion quotes Jillian as saying. "At least we're still here. Maybe some closeted kid in the hallway will see us and say, 'Hey, they're openly gay and they're not dead.'" The article is accompanied by a phone number for the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), for students wanting more information on starting gay-straight alliances in their own schools. It also includes a first-person column by actress and comedian Ellen DeGeneres about her own teen-age lesbian experiences and the weekly visits she and partner Anne Heche pay to homeless teens at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. Finally, Managing Editor Christina Ferrari, in her "Editor's Scoop" column, asks "What makes someone a hero?" and includes Daniel and Jillian in her personal exploration of heroism. Marmion's report examines one of the more serious challenges facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth today: the animosity, discrimination and even violence they face from classmates and adults. Importantly, she does not try to minimize such problems but lets two teens tell in their own words how they succeeded in coping with and countering the bias. Teen People's inclusion of the how-to-get-more-information phone number, plus the accompanying first-person account by an openly lesbian celebrity, provide a realistic but firmly- positive look at what life can be like for many of today's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth - and offers real-life proof that these teens do have constructive options for handling others' reactions to their sexual orientations. Please thank Teen People for this thoughtful, positive and helpful approach to the troubling problem of bias against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. Express to the magazine the vital importance of supporting such youth with media portrayals that convey the fact that they have positive, strengthening options for dealing with those who would do them harm. Contact: Christina Ferrari, Managing Editor, Teen People, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, or visit their website on AOL (keyword: Teen People) 4) Knight-Ridder Columnist Has Words of Wisdom For Mother of Gay Son Knight-Ridder and Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. devotes his Aug. 29 column to responding to a North Carolina mother of a gay son. She had written complaining that Pitts' recent criticism of extremists' "recruit and cure" ad campaign made it "easier for my son to convince himself even more (that) he is gay. My son is a very confused young man who has allowed Satan to rule his life right now." Pitts' reply: "It sounds like you did a great job of raising him. I imagine that you kissed a lot of skinned knees and tended more than one fever - and loved him helplessly. Now there's this. And you're frightened. But you know what? Your son probably is too. I don't know about 'confused,' though. Indeed, this might be the first time in his life that he isn't confused." Pitts writes that although scientists have reached no conclusive verdict on the origins of homosexuality, "I don't recall 'choosing' to be heterosexual. Do you?" Addressing the mother's concerns about her son's religious status, he writes, "So many people claim to know the mind of God, but the funny thing is, everyone who invokes His name seems to be thinking of something different." He concludes, "We choose the God we need, Mother. If I were you, I'd choose the one that allowed me to meet my child where he is and love him helplessly, still." Pitts' column is a sluice of compassion that rinses away a mother's seeming homophobia to disclose the fear underneath - then suggests a way of thinking and being that might help all parents accept their children's sexual orientations. Please thank Leonard Pitts Jr. for words of sentience and eloquence - and common sense - which blaze a path by which troubled parents also may find their way to understanding and accepting their children's sexual orientations and identities. Also, thank the Miami Herald for running Pitts' column. Contact: … Leonard Pitts Jr., Social Issues Columnist, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services, 790 National Press Building, Washington, DC 20045-1701, fax: 202.393.2460 … Brad Lehman, Editorial Page Editor, Miami Herald, One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132-1693, fax: 305.376.8950, e-mail: HeraldEd@herald.com 5) Ms. Peers Into One of the Country's Deepest Closets: Lesbians in Sports "Lesbians and gays are going public all over the place," Liz Galst writes in the September/October Ms. Magazine. "So why does the sports establishment have some of the deepest closets in the country?" Though many assume women athletes are, by definition, lesbians, Galst writes, "an out lesbian athlete or coach can be pretty hard to find" in professional - and especially college - sports. Administrators "fear they'll lose students and money if their women's teams are thought to be made up of lesbians." Success adds to the pressure to stay closeted, writes Galst: "With multi-year contracts, high-stakes endorsements and whopping TV revenues, nobody wants to bet their money on setting up an openly homosexual athlete as an American icon." Galst details how some recruiters try to dissuade top candidates from attending other colleges by telling parents the rival coaches are lesbians. Lesbian athletes "have heard rumors - many true - of young women who lost their scholarships when they were discovered to be lesbians." Although a small but growing group of athletes are insisting they be open about their sexuality, "It's no wonder that most lesbian coaches are in the sports closet - a secret society that exists largely apart from the rest of the lesbian and gay world." Galst also writes that "when Ms. asked more than three dozen coaches to participate in anonymous interviews for this article, not one agreed." Her article is a chilling portrait of a subculture denied its full identity, and much of its freedom, by the baseless prejudice of a heterosexual majority. Please express to Ms. Magazine your appreciation for Galst's forceful, thorough exposure of the appalling discrimination still aimed at lesbian athletes and coaches by their peers, colleagues and supervisors. Contact: Gloria Jacobs, Editor, Ms., 135 West 50th St., 16th Floor, New York, NY 10020-1201 6) Boston Globe Finds That Sometimes, Just Being Gay Isn't Enough "Call 1998 the year that gay politicians came of age," staff writer Matthew Brelis states in the Aug. 30 Boston Globe. In Massachusetts, he writes, a record 10 openly lesbian or gay candidates seek state or congressional offices. "But this year there is a further sign of the maturation and political savvy of the gay movement: Openly gay candidates are not automatically winning endorsements from gay political caucuses. Rather, they are supported or opposed based on the qualities that define any candidate: their stands on issues, their record, and their personalities." He cites the state's 8th Congressional District, where the Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance of Massachusetts endorsed Marjorie Clapprood instead of Susan Tracy, the only openly lesbian candidate in the race - who did gain Victory Fund support. Brelis also makes the point that all four openly lesbian candidates seeking congressional seats, including Tracy, are "offering themselves as candidates who happen to be gay, not gay candidates." Brelis' timely report goes beyond surface sensationalism: While he could simply have focused on the fact that a regional lesbian and gay community organization had chosen not to endorse an openly lesbian candidate, he moves beyond that. Brelis examines what his state's political landscape really is saying about our community's political participation in 1998. His insightful analysis uses both statistics and pertinent quotes to provide a positive and accurate snapshot of a community's political coming of age. Please convey to the Boston Globe your appreciation for this perceptive reporting. Let them know that such coverage encourages participation in the electoral process by making lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender individuals, who have a history of disenfranchisement in this and other arenas, aware of the political influence they possess.. Contact: Gregory L. Moore, Managing Editor, Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester, MA 02125-3338, fax: 617.929.2098, e-mail: letters@globe.com 7) Smile When You Hand Over That Teddy Bear, Pardner Dallas Morning News reporter Christine Wicker began her Aug. 30 report by painting a classic set-up for a neighborhood feud: In Oak Lawn sits JR's, a popular bar and grill among gay men, which operates a $4 million-a-year liquor business. Precisely one block away is Sam Houston Elementary, Dallas' oldest school - and among its poorest. Last fall, JR's manager, Donald Solomon, went to the school seeking a small holiday project - the names of a few families who needed some help with presents for their kids. But school administrators talked JR's and its customers into buying toys - substantial ones such as skateboards - for every single pupil. That, Wicker tells us, was in the nature of a warm-up: This fall, JR's and three other local gay bars owned by Caven Enterprises have adopted the entire school: "Sam Houston has some new playground equipment. The children have more than $1,000 in new school supplies. The number of tutors signed up to read to the children has doubled, from 35 to 70." Solomon told Wicker he never required that anyone volunteer, but employees couldn't resist the opportunity to help: "There's no hate in the children's faces. They don't know about hate." This feature is an inviting, positive and warm-hearted look at the innovative, much-needed community service being provided to children by a business catering very visibly to gay men. It is a perfect example of a story which found its way to print not because it was a "gay issue," but because it was a great story which happened to involve gay men. Please thank the Dallas Morning News for providing such enjoyable evidence that gay bars and businesses can be assets to neighborhoods as well as targets of complaint. Contact: Ralph Langer, Editor, Dallas Morning News, PO Box 655237, Dallas, TX, 75265-5237 8) San Jose Mercury News Chronicles the Slow Struggle for Transgender Rights The transgender community - aided by the political gains of lesbians and gay men - "appears to be gaining acceptance as a bona fide minority group," writes Steve Johnson in the Sept. 1 San Jose Mercury News: "A small but growing number of cities grant them special protections; some employers take pains to treat them sensitively; and the media has given them increasing visibility." But Johnson establishes that transgender persons' struggles are far from over, in a lengthy examination of the social and legal challenges they face. "They are routinely denied access to bathrooms and other public accommodations, according to a case before the California Supreme Court," he reports. "Many complain that they are targets of hate crimes." Transgender rights "also are problematic for some gays and lesbians," Johnson states. The article, which illustrates its points through having transgender persons tell their stories, is thoroughly reported and provides a survey of transgender life both in broad-stroke and in some depth. Please express to the San Jose Mercury News your appreciation for this thoroughly researched and positive examination of the challenges - and the gains - of one of the least-reported-on groups in our community. Contact: David Yarnold, Managing Editor, San Jose Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190-0001, fax: 408.2798.1966, e-mail: letters@sjmercury.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 (LA), 212.807.1700 (NY), 415.861.2244 (SF), 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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