[This file can be found in /pub/QRD/qrd/glaad/SFBA/glaad-SFBA-6.25.93 at vector.intercon.com on the Queer Resources Directory] San Francisco Bay Area Chapter GLAAD Media News Briefs -- June 25,1993 by Al Kielwasser GLAAD/SFBA Lesbian Invincibility "Lesbians have always been the invisible homosexuals," but "now these women are stepping front and center." That observation appears in Newsweek's June 21 issue, complete with a cover photo of an embracing lesbian couple. In a seven-page cover story, the magazine examines various aspects of lesbian culture, politics and pride. The well illustrated and (generally) well-researched article pays particular attention to the relationship between the mainstream media and lesbian visibility. Among the subjects discussed: lesbian youth, the military ban, and sexism. On the down side, the article makes a few troubling statements. According to Newsweek, "There are an estimated 2 million to 3 million (lesbians) in the United States -- far fewer than the approximately 5 percent of the population represented by gay men." The article provides no source for these figures. In a particularly lop-sided sentence, the authors discuss the television pairing of "avowed bisexual Sandra Bernhard" and "actress Morgan Fairchild." Of coarse, Bernhard is an actress too. And if Fairchild has "avowed" her own sexual orientation, then consistency dictates that we be told as much. Reporters always have trouble articulating phrases like "avowed heterosexual." On the topic of a possible, national "backlash," Newsweek reports: "Even many liberals who watched C-Span's unexpurgated coverage of the gay-rights march (in Washington) were offended by the spectacle of some women -- albeit from the lesbian fringes -- who were kissing or half-naked." If lesbians who kiss in public represent the "fringe," one shudders to imagine how deeply restrained (and boring) life would have to be at the "center." Perhaps the most serious flaw in the article is represented by the question that appears on the magazine's cover: "What are the limits of tolerance?" While the article frets over the ways that visible lesbians "may test the limits of America's uneasy tolerance of homosexuality," the authors do not directly challenge whether "limits" on "tolerance" are valid in the first place. Despite these flaws, the piece is still something of a "breakthrough" for the major news weeklies and the magazine is likely to receive phobic complaints. Send your comments (along with your name, address and daytime phone) to the Letters Editor, Newsweek, 444 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022, fax 212-350-4120. You can also call Bill Christotherson, Letters Director, at 212-350-4000. More Information, Please! Within the tidy and influential histories constructed on the pages of popular almanacs, lesbians and gays are routinely rendered invisible. For example, the 1993 edition of the best-selling Information Please Almanac is an atlas of omission. Though promoted as "the almanac for the nineties," "the new universe of information," and "the centerpiece of the world's reference shelves," the Information Please Almanac omits references to significant lesbian and gay subjects. In fact, you won't even find the words "Iesbian," "gay" or "bisexual" in the index of this 1,024 page paperback, which has been published annually since 1947. No almanac, atlas or yearbook can be truly exhaustive, but the Information Please Almanac could certainly be more inclusive. The book's section on "Law Enforcement & Crime" (pp. 849-856) doesn't mention hate crimes. The lengthy "Sports" section (pp. 892-1004) is silent on the subject of the Gay Games. A biased essay on curriculum issues in the "Education" section (pp. 857-891) never mentions prominent, nation-wide struggles to combat homophobia and heterosexism in school textbooks. No lesbian, gay or bisexual milestones are included in the Almanac's "Headline History" (pp. 93-126), a chronology of events from 5 million B.C. to December 31, 1991. Not a single reference to lesbians and gays can be found in a section on "The Ever-Changing American Family" (pp. 469-470). The only reference to homosexuality included in the Almanac's list of "Current Events" (pp. 1009-1018), which covers January to October, 1992, is this March 27 headline: "Philadelphian charged with spreading AIDS. Police arrest man who may have infected several hundred teen-age boys through sexual relations." The Almanac's list of "Firsts in America" (pp. 672) offers no lesbian, gay or bisexual firsts. Likewise, no lesbian, gay or bisexual titles are included on the list of reference books that comprise a section on "Where to Find Out More" (pp. 315-316). The Almanac's directory of "U.S. Societies & Associations" (pp. 603-614) includes everything from the Agricultural History Society to the National Investigations Committee on UFOS. Missing from the list, however, are such associations as the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The Almanac's guide to "Toll-Free Numbers" (pp. 600-601) also fails to include the 411 on 1-800 hotlines operated by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (1-800-4- FAMILY) and the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Youth Hotline (1-800-347-TEEN). Despite such conspicuous omissions, the editors of the Almanac seem to have a modest sense of fairness. The book's directory of associations does include information on both pro- and anti-choice organizations, war resisters' groups as well as veterans associations. The 1993 edition of the Almanac also features new sections on "Women's Rights" and "Native Americans." However, the editors need to be reminded that lesbian, gay and bisexual inclusion is necessary to make the "almanac for the nineties" truly fair and factual. Send your comments and suggestions -- which the editors promise to "consider carefully" -- to Otto Johnson, Executive Editor, and Vera Dailey, Associate Editor, The Information Please Almanac, Editorial Office, Houghton Nfifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003. Pomo Afro Homos Pomo Afro Homos, the award-winning gay performance group, has once again been excluded from the National Black Theater festival. The biennial festival, which will be held during the week of August 2-7, is intended to highlight the best and brightest in African American theater arts. According to a report from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), homophobia appears to be the only reason that the Pomo Afro Homos group has been bared from the festival. In 1991, Pomo Afro Homos offered to present "Fierce Love: Stories From Black Gay Life" and, this year, the group offered to bring "Dark Fruit" to the festival. Each time, Pomo Afro Homos received no response from festival organizers. Express your concerns to Larry Leon Hamlin, Director, National Black Theater Festival, 610 Coliseum Drive, Winston-Salem, NC 27106. Copies of your letters should be sent to NGLTF, "Activist Alert" Editor, 1734 14th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20009-4309. Indefensible Waste Think you've responded in every way possible to the military's ban against lesbians and gays? Think again! The Department of Defense operates a toll-free number for citizens to report "suspected cases of fraud and waste involving the Department," and callers need not reveal their identity. What could be more wasteful than the ban against lesbian and gay soldiers? The U.S. Government Accounting Office reports that in 1990 alone, the military spent $27 million to train and discharge gay and lesbian soldiers and retrain their replacements. The tab for maintaining the ban between 1980 and 1990 came to a grand total of $493,195,968. Call the Department of Defense at 1-800-424-9098 and report this embarrassing waste of tax payers' dollars. Calls can be made Monday through Friday, between 8:00 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. EST. GO YO! The Summer 1993 issue of YO! (Youth Outlook) newspaper includes a two-page cartoon centerfold, "Memoirs From A Closet." The first-hand story offers glimpses of author/artist Brent Calderwood's experiences as a gay youth -- his early feelings of depression and difference, laughing at "fag jokes" to fit in, coming out to a friend, and eventually finding support in a gay and lesbian youth group at Berkeley's Pacific Center. In the final panels, the Livermore High School student gives a speech to the student council: The school pretends students like me don't exist. Not anymore. I want counselors and faculty educated about gay youth. I want books, up-to-date books about homosexuality, in the school library. And I want yelling 'Faggot' to be just as wrong as yelling 'Nigger'." YO!, "a journal of youth life in the Bay Area," is an affiliate of Youth Communications, a network of teen newspapers produced across the country and headquartered in Washington, DC. Send comments and compliments to Nell Bernstein, Editor, YO!, Pacific News Service, 450 Mission Street. Ste. 506, San Francisco, CA 94105, tel. 415-243-4364. Homosexual Headlines The June 9 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle displays this headline: "Sailor Gets 7 Years for Homosexual Rape." The article itself reports on "the second recent homosexual assault" to take place in Jacksonville, Florida. Phrases like "homosexual rape" and "homosexual assault" are grossly unfair, and the Chronicle should know better. The "homosexual" adjective is too often put to lurid uses, typically restricted to crime reports. Moreover, newspapers seldom (if ever.) report such crimes as "heterosexual rape," "Jewish rape," or for that matter, "brunette rape." Write to Matt Wilson, Managing Editor, San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, tel. 415-777-1111. The only way to cure homophobia is to confront it! Notify the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, of all defamations, omissions or affirmations, and if possible supply us with documentation. Our office number is 415-861-4588; South Bay Hotline 408-235-0229; East Bay Hotline 510-273-9146; fax 415-861-4893. Our mailing address is GLAAD/SFBA, 514 Castro St., Suite B, San Francisco, CA 94114. Send items for this weekly report to the attention of Al Kielwasser. ****OCR by Alan Batie ****