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In our continuing effort to provide GLBT Vermonters and their allies information about the world outside our state, Out in the Mountains is pleased to offer excerpts from GLADDAlert, the activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Readers should note that these alerts are not necessarily a reflection of the opinions of OITM or Mountain Pride Media. Rather, they are written by the staff of GLAAD in their mission ot "promote fair, accurate and inclusive representation in the media as a means of challenging homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity."
Richard Lessner's editorial "High-School Hijinks: Homosexual Group at West; Lawsuit in Concord" in the May 18 edition of the Union Leader (Manchester, NH) was an exercise in journalistic ignorance. Students at Manchester's West High requested a support group for gay and lesbian teens and were turned down by their principal. Their request is now before the school board.
Lessner tosses off this request as a bit of nonsense, since "the last thing they need in such circumstances is a "support group" to add to their confusion by endorsing their supposed sexual orientation." Further, as the author of this piece is a journalist, we would have thought that he could get the facts straight. Among his gaffes, he maintains that "[n]o evidence suggests that homosexuality is genetic," and argues that "it is a myth that homosexuality is untreatable."
It is shocking that a staff member of a newspaper in the very same state where Gov. Jean Shaheen has just repealed a ban against gay adoption treats part of his readership with utter contempt and compromises the safety of its youth in a most cavalier fashion.
Please let the Union Leader know that this column was offensive, defamatory and dismissive.
Contact: Jim Linehan, Managing Editor, Union Leader, P.O. Box 9555, Manchester, NH 03108-9555, fax: 603.668.0382
In the May 9 Miami Herald, AIDS in the African-American community is addressed in a forthright and poignant fashion by a pair of reporters, Andrea Robinson and Stephen Smith, and in a complementary op-ed piece by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The former piece is an exhaustive report that pulls out all stops in search of an answer to the question, "How can the black community talk about AIDS?" In the service of this piece, Robinson and Smith interview 100 hundred people, from PWAs to pastors, politicians to prisoners to family survivors. It is a bleak portrait, but a tale that must be told. The article quotes spokespersons from the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, the Congressional Black Caucus, and references a recent speech by Jesse Jackson, who has pledged "rhetorical and political might to the battle with the virus."
The power of this article is its range. It is anecdotal, but it also spotlights research studies (one analyzes how the loss of a close relative affects a woman's ability to fight HIV), the power of stigma, and steps taken to acknowledge an epidemic that continues to disproportionately affect the African-American community.
Leonard Pitts' op-ed piece references this article, and is a plea that quotes Marvin Gaye: "Talk to me. So you can see. What's Going On."
Although blacks account from one-seventh the population of Florida, they account for 63% of AIDS deaths.
The contribution of these Miami Herald reporters to fighting the denial and silence around AIDS is inestimable. Let their managing editor know that theirs is a job well done.
Contact: Larry Olmstead, Managing Editor, Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132, fax: 305.376.8950
In the May 15 Charlotte Observer, Anna Griffin profiled the Rev. Jimmy Creech, one of a half-dozen United Methodist ministers around the country who performs same-sex marriage ceremonies. Griffin chronicles Creech's evolution from a civil rights activist during the late 1960s to a young pastor in North Carolina to a pastor who marched in gay rights parades and preaches tolerance.
While Creech doesn't see himself as a gay rights activist, per se, he was swayed in 1984 by a member of his parish who withdrew in protest of a church order that held homosexuality to be unacceptable. From that point on Creech spoken out on behalf of his lesbian and gay parishioners, has addressed organizations such as Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG), and has continued to challenge church doctrine by performing same-sex ceremonies.
Ms. Griffin delved into Rev. Creech's past with care, spoke with those whose lives he has touched and has elicited dynamic quotes from the pastor himself: "My cause is the soul of my church." In this article she has managed to illustrate how a mainsteam (and heterosexual) pastor has reconciled faith with respect for all.
Please commend the Charlotte Observer for this nuanced and inspiring portrayal of the Rev. Jimmy Creech.
Contact: Jennie Buckner, Editor, Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230, fax: 704.358.5022, e-mail: opinion@charlotte.com
Anheuser-Busch's recent Bud Lite ad in EXP, a St. Louis bi-weekly gay publication, reverberated around the country. Jerry Falwell mobilized his denizens to ring Busch's toll-free lines off the hook. Interestingly, the ad merely shows a couple (from the back) holding hands.
In a current print and billboard campaign Subaru has mounted a wry campaign, with license plates that read, "CAMP OUT," "PTOWNIE," "XENA LVR," complete with a rainbow flag sticker and the Human Rights Campaign's equality symbol on the bumper. It is important, however, to examine the trajectory in advertising, and to question the motives of the companies that are courting the gay dollar. Are we being exploited as a community, or treated with respect? Two articles from the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Examiner, respectively, look at this recent phenomenon.
In the May 18 Los Angeles Times, Cliff Rothman investigates the power of the gay and lesbian market, which has seen ad dollars in the gay press doubling in the last five years from $53 million to $120 million. Rothman speaks with pioneers, such as IKEA and Dockers, who led with portrayals of lesbians and gay men, pointing out the unsuccessful boycott of Disney, and charting the way to the present, where more and more ads are "openly gay," rather than implictly so.
Dave Ford of the San Francisco Examiner, in an op-ed entitled, "Intoxicated by Bud Light's Gay-Themed Ads," questions blind allegiance to those brands that deign to cater to the gay market. While his statement that "Advertising imagery does not change people's minds" is disputable, the remainder of the piece is food for thought. Ford asks us to consider that we are "so starved for positive representation in the dominant culture that we run the risk of mistaking consumerist assimilation for respect, advertising imagery for rights." A progressive corporation, Ford suggests, would not merely produce ads for a gay market, but would fund grassroots legislative drives, gays-in-the-workplace seminars, and treatment for substance abuse in the gay and lesbian community.
Please thank Subaru for an ad campaign that acknowledges lesbian and gay automobile enthusiasts, in all their diversity and the mass transit systems of Washington, DC and San Francisco who have run these ads.
Please write to the Los Angeles Times to thank them for an education in advertising to the "gay market," and to the San Francisco Examiner for a cautionary discussion on not confusing visibility for authenticity.
Contact: Advertising, Subaru of America, 609.488.8500, e-mail: www.subaru.com/feeback/index.html
For mass transit advertising, both San Francisco BART and Washington, DC. Metro: Dan Langdon, Transportation Displays Incorporated (TDI), 202.775.9115
John Lindsay, Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, fax: 213.237.4712
Sharon Rosenhause, Managing Editor, News, San Francisco Examiner, P.O. Box 7260, San Francisco, CA 94120, fax: 415.512.1264
