Subject: IWG Inquirer Ellen Letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 23:23:25 -0400 (EDT)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 10 congregations and religious
organizations and 48 clergy from 14 faiths and denominations. If you are in 
the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious 
organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths 
are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in 
other areas.

October 14, 1997

The Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 8263
Phila., PA 19101

Dear Editors:

We were incensed by the October 14 editorial in which
you said that the networks should use the parental
rating system to pander to some parents' prejudices. 
Would it be appropriate to warn parents of a kiss
shared by a mixed-race couple?   Would it have been an
appropriate warning 20 years ago?  How about a show
like Nothing Sacred?   Should we be warning parents
about the portrayal of people with religious beliefs
that may be contrary to their own?  After all, it isn't
the subject matter on Nothing Sacred that the American
Family Association and the Catholic League find
offensive, it's the beliefs expressed by the priest. 
And you know as well as we do that isn't the kiss on
Ellen that upset some people, it's Ellen's notion that
it's "OK to be gay."  The kiss is just a graphic
representation of the idea.  If this is the way the
ratings system was supposed to work, if the intent was
to legitimize the concerns of those who want everybody
else to look and act like them, then the system was not
a good idea.  Ratings systems aren't just warnings for
parents, they're statements about what is generally
acceptable by society, and we're setting a very bad
precedent when we say that the same behavior is
acceptable for some people and not for others.  The
double standard wasn't right when it was applied to
mixed-race couples, and it isn't right now that it's
being applied to same-gender couples.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

-- 

Interfaith Working Group                Religious organizations, congregations
[email-masked]                      and clergy supporting gay rights,
http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/         reproductive freedom, and the 
215-235-3050                            separation of church and state.