Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation San Francisco Bay Area Chapter GLAAD Media News Briefs -- July 23,1993 by Al Kielwasser GLAAD/SFBA Journalists We Don't Need to Hear About Anymore... Annoyed by the vocal dialogue about lesbian, gay and bisexual civil rights, some members of the press are saying "shut up, already!" Obviously, such journalists haven't heard enough. Writing in the July 18 Sunday Datebook section of the San Francisco Chronicle, "Showbiz" columnist Gerald Nachman runs through a self-important list of places, people and things "we" don't need to hear about anymore. Of people, he writes: "People We Don't Need to Hear About Anymore: k. d. lang and her sexuality, or whatever you call it." Adding insult to injury, Nachman's column is illustrated with a photo of k.d. lang captioned: "Singer k.d. lang: Enough already." Let the Chronicle hear from you: David Kleinberg, Editor, Datebook, and Matt Wilson, Managing Editor, San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, tel. 415-777-1111. Herb Caen San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen has also been sprinkling his daily rambles with some very humorless homophobia. In his July 6 column, Caen pretends to examine some of the reasons that San Francisco is no longer a favorite city and a "happening place." The City simply isn't "clean," Caen says. And what makes us so "dirty?" According to Caen: "large overdoses of p.c. and c.d. (politically correctness and cultural diversity)." San Francisco's decline can also be attributed to a dirty past, says Caen, which included "hippies, druggies, acid rock, (and) gay bathhouses." By celebrating our diversity in front of the national media, he argues, we were cutting our throats as the photographers said 'Smile!'." In his July 23 column, Caen spits up some more homophobic drool, this time on the subject of the military's ban against lesbians and gay men. Caen reports that he received a suggestion that the "Don't ask/don't tell" policy should be renamed the "Oh, just shut up about it!" policy. In response to that suggestion, Caen writes: "Ah, how often we've wanted to say exactly that to some of our gay friends." In a society that talks incessantly about heterosexuality, it is hardly lesbians and gay men who need to shut up. It is both callous and deeply ignorant to dismiss a major civil rights struggle as if it was some sort of petty annoyance. Furthermore, cultural diversity is only a dirty word if you're a pompous bigot. Write to the Chronicle today, and demand that Herb Caen clean up his own act. Complaints should be directed to Matt Wilson, Managing Editor, San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, tel. 415-777-1111. Feather River Bulletin An especially insulting example of journalistic bigotry appears in the July 14 issue of the Feather River Bulletin, the weekly newspaper of Quincy, California. In his "Bylines" column, Ev Bey discusses his attendance at an editor's conference where "protecting" the English language was a hot topic. Bey is particularly bodiered by the use of "gay" as a "substitute for homosexual." "We resent a particular goup stealing a good and beautiful word, contaminating its meaning," Bey writes. "They have destroyed a word that has always meant joyous, merry, bright, happy, in order to avoid using less-happy words like 'homo,' 'fairy,' 'fag' or 'faggot,' 'queer', 'pansy,' 'limp-wrist' and others that were probably in more detestable taste." In In the same column, Bey attacks women, disabled persons, and people of color. On "Negroes" and "Blacks", Bey comments: "Now we're told there is a movement afoot to call them 'African Americans.' Does that appellation also apply to a white person from the country of South Africa?" "We wish they would make up their minds," Bey concludes, "it isn't easy being a journalist who wants to be correct all the time." If this column is any indication, Bey could hardly be accused of being correct at any time. Don't let Bey's bigotry go unchallenged. Write to Michael C. Taborski, President and General Manager, Feather River Bulletin, P.O. Box B, 555 W. Main Street, Quincy, CA 95971, tel. 916-283-0800, fax. 916-283-3952. Lesbians in Vogue On an affirmative note, "Goodbye to the Last Taboo" -- a feature on lesbian visibility -- appears in the July issue of Vogue magazine. Though the claim to being society's "last taboo" is problematic, the article was a perceptive and thorough look at the relative explosion of lesbians in the media. Writer Alexis Jetter interviewed women like Lesbian Avenger Ann Northrop, writer Susie Bright, and GLAAD/New York's own Ellen Carton in a discussion about the degree to which the new visibility of lesbians in film, TV and music represents inclusion as opposed to voyeurism. In the context of recent progress like the positive viewer responses to depictions of lesbians on TV, Jetter pointed out that most persons involved in such programs refused to be interviewed for the article. Please support this well-rounded article by writing to Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief, Vogue, 350 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10017. Southern Poverty Law Center Update Some of our members have received or read in the press letters from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) regarding GLAAD/SFBA. The SPLC has charged us with a "serious misrepresentation of (their) work." This misunderstanding arose when we reported a conversation between film maker Pam Walton and SPLC staff member Carol Heller. According to Walton, Heller reported that the SPLC had let itself be influenced the homophobic complaints of major donors. The SPLC has since denied that report, and has accused GLAAD/SFBA of unprofessional reporting on this incident. Contrary to SPLC's contentions, we freely acknowledge the breadth and value of their work. However, we see it as our job to publicize and counteract homophobic pressures wherever they occur. Our reporting with regard to SPLC has always been accurate and fair. The only way to cure homophobia is to confront it! To notify the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, of defamations, omissions or affirmations, or to request membership information, call our office at 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. Items for this column should be sent to the attention of Al Kielwasser at GLAAD/SFBA.