Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 20:27:53 +0000 From: Bonnie Haley Subject: GLAAD's Media Watch column GLAAD MEDIA WATCH January 14,1994 DOWN THE DRANO The johnson Wax company is still sending concilliatory letters to the bigoted boycotters of the "Religious Right." The company had been the target of a 5-month boycott promoted by the American Family association and CLeaR-TV (Christian Leaders for Responsible Television). The American Family Association (AFA) is a heterosexual supremacist group that attempts to censor TV programs that include anything more than hateful stereotypes of lesbians, gays and bisexuals. In the past, the AFA has launched nationwide postcard campaigns threatening companies with boycotts, warning "you will have to choose whether you want the business of the radical homosexuals or those of us who are concerned with their anti-family campaign." The boycott against Johnson Wax was lifted on August 13, 1993, after the company orchestrated a meeting with officials of CLeaR-TV and the AFA. Forfeiting the moral high ground, Johnson Wax has never bothered to publicly examine (or even defend) the company's decision to come to a "meeting of the mindless" with the AFA, an organization that exists solely to peddle hatred. In his most recent form letter, Thomas R. Conrady, diector of the Johnson Wax Consumer resource Center, continues to appease fundie consumers with the assurance that the company is a "family-friendly corporation." He might just as well have written "American Family Associatio-friendly," it seems Johnson Wax all but ignored the lesbian and gay organizations that offered to join with the company in standing up to the censorious AFA boycott. Johnson Wax has also ignored repreated requests for clarification of the "strict advertising policy guidelines" touted in the letters that the company is still sending to AFA supporters. Side-stepping the issue of homophobia, the company's latest letter encourages bigots once again enjoy "the same high quality products you've become accustomed to using, such as PLEDGE, GLADE, SHOUT, RAID, OFF!, WINDEX, EDGE, TOILET DUCK, DRANO, VANISH, BRITE, and FUTURE." A suggested reply to this letter: WE MUST CONFRONT HOMOPHOBIA IN ORDER TO CURE IT! TO NOTIFY THE GAY & LESBIAN ALLIANCE AGAINST DEFAMATION OF ANY DEFAMATORY MEDIA COVERAGE, OR TO REQUESST MORE INFORMATION ABOUT GLAAD, CONTACT GLAAD/SFBA, 514 CASTRO STREET, SUITE B, SF, CA 94114, TEL. 415-861-4588, FAX 415-861-4893, E-MAIL BONNIE@OUTRIGHT.COM.