Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 07:39:33 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: DIRECTOR OF ONLINE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TO BOOST GLAAD'S UNIQUE BRAND OF ONLINE ACTIVISM AND INTERNET ADVOCACY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ben Stilp, Interim Director of Communications Ph: (212) 807-1700, ext. 14 e-mail: stilp@glaad.org DIRECTOR OF ONLINE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TO BOOST GLAAD'S UNIQUE BRAND OF ONLINE ACTIVISM AND INTERNET ADVOCACY --Senior Industry Professional Will Doherty to Spearhead GLAAD's Online Work -- "As Internet technology outpaces the nation's ability to preserve our civil liberties, GLAAD has stepped up to protect the rights of access and privacy for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and for all people who use the Internet." --Will Doherty, GLAAD Director of Online Community Development SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 12, 1999 - As one of the nation's leading advocates for cultural change through media advocacy, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today announced the hire of Will Doherty as Director of Online Community Development. Mr. Doherty will spearhead GLAAD's pioneering work to protect rights of privacy and access on the Internet for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, as well as to organize these communities online in response to unfair, inaccurate, or exclusive media coverage whether on or off the Internet. GLAAD is one of the only national nonprofit media advocacy groups in the lesbian and gay community with two full-time staff dedicated to leveraging the Internet as a tool to organize and advocate for cultural change. After an exhaustive national search, GLAAD appointed Mr. Doherty, who will also manage GLAAD's Interactive Media Resource Center in San Francisco. Just as GLAAD's Entertainment Media Director is charged with coordinating GLAAD's work in Hollywood, Mr. Doherty will cultivate strategic partnerships in Silicon Valley and beyond. Mr. Doherty will also develop and maintain relationships with officials in charge of policy decisions concerning the Internet. Mr. Doherty brings to GLAAD nearly twenty years of experience as a computing consultant and online activist. In the early 1980's, he worked on the ARPANET, precursor of the Internet. Mr. Doherty served as the Globalization Operations Manager at Sybase, Inc., and as a Localization Program Manager and a Technical Writer for Sun Microsystems, Inc. Most recently Mr. Doherty worked as a Technical Writer on a global Java applications book to be published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. He has designed and implemented Internet strategies and web sites for several nonprofit community and advocacy organizations (both as a consultant and volunteer). Mr. Doherty holds an MBA from Golden Gate University and a BS in Computer Science and Writing from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Freedom of access to the Internet is under attack by interests seeking to censor content and limit access for all. Both corporate and legislative entities determine Internet policies concerning privacy and access rights. These policies affect over 83 million Internet users in America today representing 40% of adults in the United States. With a growth rate of 21 percent a year, Internet use in America is expected to boom to more than 100 million by the year 2000. A widely publicized incident that best illustrates the threat to privacy online for gay people occurred in 1998 when U.S. Naval Officer Timothy McVeigh was outed and lost his job as a result of America Online forwarding personal data to his commanders without his knowledge or permission. New technology threatens the right to privacy online in unexpected ways. The Intel Corporation's Pentium III computer chip (PIII --expected in millions of computers by the end of 1999 ) permits tracking of personal information by means of an Internet user's PIII serial number (PSN), ostensibly for commercial purposes. The potential misuse of the PSN poses a significant threat to those lesbian and gay people online who see the Internet as an anonymous refuge. On April 8, 1999, GLAAD joined the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and Consumer Action in a complaint against Intel, filing a supplement with the Federal Trade Commission to halt shipment of the Pentium III chip. GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry said, "Historically, only those able to take enormous risk to come out of the closet have been able to visibly and vocally advocate for equal rights. By offering relative anonymity and safety to more lesbian and gay people, the Internet broadens the scope of those able to participate and affect change. Will Doherty is charged with spearheading GLAAD's work to protect the rights and safety of that community and harness its powerful voice for cultural change; as well as ensure filtering software and legislative policies do not eliminate access to vital information of concern to our community online." In 1995, GLAAD launched GLAAD Online, and was one of the first lesbian and gay organizations to operate and maintain a comprehensive web site. Thanks primarily to the efforts of Loren Javier, GLAAD's Director of Interactive Media, GLAAD's web site attracts more than 15,000 unique visitors per week. In 1997, GLAAD published Access Denied, a groundbreaking report on the impact of Internet filtering software (IFS) on the lesbian and gay community, which was released at the White House Internet Summit: Focus on Children, held December 1-3, 1997. Access Denied was also distributed to members of the US Congress in 1998 during votes on IFS legislation. GLAAD has alerted and mobilized community response online to instances of defamation in the media and other national events through GLAAD's web site and email list of more than 100,000 people. Most recently in January 1999, GLAAD and Digital Queers (DQ), one of the foremost activist groups on the Internet, joined to form the DQ Initiative at GLAAD to train community activists how to use Internet technology in developing and expanding equal rights for lesbians and gay men. Mr. Doherty said, "We've come a long way since the days when we booted up the Internet backbone using clunky paper tapes. How wonderful that we can use technology to build relationships for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people seeking community, as well as to raise awareness in the general public about the negative consequences of hate and intolerance." 1 Nua Ltd. (www.nua.ie) 2 New York Times, April 23, 1999 --[end]-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) glaad@glaad.org TO REPORT DEFAMATION IN THE MEDIA - Call GLAAD's Alertline at 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or go to the GLAAD Web Site at www.glaad.org and report through our Alertline Online. TO JOIN GLAAD AND RECEIVE GLAAD's QUARTERLY IMAGES MAGAZINE, call 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or join on the Web today at www.glaad.org/glaad/join/join-about.html TO SUBSCRIBE TO GLAAD-Net, GLAAD's electronic mailing list, send e-mail to majordomo@vector.casti.com with the message "Subscribe GLAAD-Net" (without the quotation marks). Make sure that you turn off all signatures and extraneous text. TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail to majordomo@vector.casti.com with the message "Unsubscribe GLAAD-Net" (without the quotation marks). Make sure that you turn off all signatures and extraneous text. 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