From: MPetrelis@aol.com
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 11:15:09 EST
Subject: Objections to BAR ad from right-wingers


Dear B.A.R. editor:

In what has to be one of the weirdest attempts to acheive political
correctness in recent memory, the Bay Area Reporter, a weekly GLBT paper in
San Francisco this week published a paid advertisement for an upcoming
seminar sponsored by Focus on the Family.  Yes, that's right, the same
group which stridently opposes equal rights for GLBT people, and funds
attacks around the country against laws which protect our equal rights.

In an editorial on page 6, the paper attempts to justify their decision by
pointing out that it has taken years for the legitimacy of the gay
community to be recognised to the point where news for, of and about queers
gets run in the mainstream media.  The writer of the editorial then
attempts, unsuccesfully, to make a leap of logic by asking "How could we
turn around and impose censorship on Focus on the Family just because we
don't agree with the ad's message or what it is promoting?"  In a further
attempt to make their dubious decision more PC, the paper donated the money
they made, some $231 to the Aids Emergency Fund.

The 4" X 5" ad, which ran without any nearby disclaimer, appears on page 24
of this week's issue of the paper.  It proclaims "Love Won Out" in large
letters, and in smaller type advises "find answers to your questions about
homosexuality - attend this moving one-day conference in Sacramento"  Then
in tiny type under the phone number we are told "presented by Focus on the
Family".  There is nothing in the ad to indicate that it is being put on by
"ex-gay" Jahn Paulk and "former lesbian" Jane Boyer.  Readers who may have
skipped the editorial, or a related page one article "Focus on the Closet"
would have no way of knowing that it had been placed by an anti-gay group.

To the folks at the Bay Area Reporter, before you decided to take that ad,
were you not aware that the suicide rate among GLBT youth is three times as
high as it is among their straight peers?  What are you going to say to
those kids who go to that conference, TRUSTING IT WAS OK BECAUSE IT WAS
ADVERTISED ON YOUR PAGES?  

Before you took that ad, were you not aware that it would lend an
unwarrented legitimacy to the whole morally backrupt idea of reparative
therapy?  What are you going to say when Focus on the Family starts
trumpeting the fact "Even the gay community is behind us - see they even
take our ads".

And finally looking to the future, what shall we expect to see?  Ads by
Kansas preacher Fred Phelps and his clan telling us that "Fags burn in
Hell"?  Recruitment ads for the KKK or the Aryian Nation?  Just how much
space will 30 pieces of silver buy on the pages of the Bay Area Reporter
these days?

--Paul Barwick