Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 19:17:22 -0500
From: glaad@glaad.org (GLAAD)
Subject: GLAADALERT  --  January 9, 1998

GLAADALERT  --  January 9, 1998
The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation

Outing at America Online
In a November 7 court hearing, a Navy official testified that an America
Online (AOL) staff member carelessly outed a member of the country's
largest online service provider. Navy Submariner Timothy R. McVeigh (no
relation to the Oklahoma City bomber) was discharged from 17 years of
service after AOL allegedly gave United States Navy staff legalman Joseph
M. Kaiser the name and state of a profile he was investigating.  Kaiser
alleges a tech services staff member named Owen just gave him the
information when he identified himself as a "third party in receipt of a
fax and wanted to confirm the [member] profile sheet, (and) who it belonged
to." According to the court transcript, McVeigh's defense attorney asked
Kaiser, "He gave you information that links (AOL) members screen names with
the member's actual name?  Sounds like that's what you've done." Kaiser
replied, "Yes, that is correct."  The rest of the transcript can be found
at McViegh's Web site at http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/9241/KAIS.HTML.

This brings into serious question the right to privacy on the service
provider. AOL has a strict policy that explicitly prohibits the company
from giving out any personal information about its members. Unfortunately,
according to the U.S. Navy, under oath, this is not always the case, with
disastrous results. The Internet has offered the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender community a safe place to find out more information about the
community.  And given the hostile atmosphere of the military and other
segments of American society to gay people, breaking established rules of
confidentiality can jeopardize people's careers and the health and security
of individuals and their families. By time of publication, AOL did not
return comment to GLAAD regarding the matter. To other sources AOL has
denied they told the Navy anything.  On January 8, AOL shut down McVeigh's
e-mail account without prior notice-the same day the New York Times Online
and C-Net ran stories on McVeigh's plight.

Please write AOL and tell them that whether or not the allegations are
true, such an invasion of privacy is intolerable. Demand that AOL
expediently investigate and publicly respond to the matter.
Contact: Steve Case, President and CEO, America Online, 8619 Westwood
Center Drive, Vienna, VA 22182, e-mail: SteveCase@aol.com.

Is Bayliss Bi in Baltimore?
The January 2 episode of the critically acclaimed NBC crime series
Homicide: Life on the Street centered around the murder investigation of a
gay man, introducing the possible emergence of one of the series' main
characters as bisexual.  Detectives Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton
(Andre Braugher) investigate the brutal murder of a man found dead in a
dumpster behind a Baltimore gay restaurant.  The owner, Chris Rawls (Peter
Gallagher), works with the investigators to track down the young, cocky
hustler responsible for the murder.  Throughout the episode the officers
confront homophobic attitudes among fellow officers, public outcry by local
gay organizations, closeted gay men and internalized homophobia.  By
episode's end, Bayliss, unhappy in love, accepts Chris' offer to have
dinner with him at the restaurant, leaving Pembleton confused and upset.

This episode tackles a variety of issues of concern to the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender community, but left many unanswered questions for
viewers unfamiliar with internalized homophobia, anti-gay violence and gay
culture.  While the episode seemed well intentioned, Peter Gallagher's
character is the only gay character not depicted as ashamed, deviant or
criminal. The show's focus on "gay life" as street life, filled with
hustlers and more drag queens (flighty, but fierce) than exist in all of
Maryland, gives the audience an incomplete picture of the gay community.
Bayliss tells his partner that "no matter what you say, these people really
know how to make the nightlife count." Still, the show does handles
Bayliss' emerging sexual identity well. According to published reports,
Homicide will continue the story line, exploring Bayliss's realization of
his bisexuality.  With the drama's strength being on character development,
and with Bayliss already a respected main character, this plot development
would be a welcome addition to primetime TV.

Please write Homicide and encourage them to handle Bayliss' bisexuality
with dignity and respect.
Contact: Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, Executive Producers, Homicide:
Life on the Streets, NBC Studios, 330 Bob Hope Drive, Burbank, CA 91523,
e-mail: homicide@nbc.com.

Psycho Lesbian on Melrose Place
The January 5 episode of Melrose Place marked the passing of the golden
days of milquetoast Matt Fielding (Doug Savant) (see GLAADAlert 11.22.96)
when it was revealed that the season's newest psychotic character Connie
Rexroth (Megan Ward) is a lesbian. Connie was introduced earlier in the
season as the best friend of Samantha Reilly (Brooke Langham). She has
tried to break up Samantha and hubby Billy Campbell (Andrew Shue),
continuously accusing Billy of infidelity by hitting on him. On the January
5 episode, a woman (Charlie) comes by looking for Connie, and asks Billy
where she is. He recognizes the name "Charlie" as the same name of the
person Connie has consistently called her "lover" and starts asking, "You
mean, her-." Charlie finishes his sentence with "lover."  She warns Billy
that Connie is trying to steal Samantha from him.

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender viewers may welcome a wild gay
character on this show which in the past paraded hypersexual heterosexual
psychos while the gay character stayed sane, yet celibate. Others may be
concerned by this portrayal of a scheming psycho lesbian in the tradition
of Basic Instinct.

Please write Spelling Productions and Fox and let them know how you feel
about the Connie Rexroth character.
Contact:
… Executive Producers, Melrose Place, Spelling Entertainment, 5700 Wilshire
Blvd., #575, Los Angeles, CA 90036, fax: 213.965.5808;
… Peter Roth, Entertainment President, Fox Broadcasting Company, 10201 W.
Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, fax: 310.369.7363; or call the viewer hotline
at 310.369.3066.

Good Utah, Bad Utah
While the arch-conservative Deseret News continues its sloppy and
wrong-headed coverage (see GLAADAlert 9.12.97) of gay-related issues with a
January 3 article, another Utah newspaper, the Provo Daily Herald, featured
a sensitive and heartfelt January 4 commentary by its managing editor. The
Deseret News' 1998 predictions article included this: "The Legislature
might also make it a crime for a public-school teacher to be openly gay, an
issue that surfaced in 1997 in the celebrated case of Wendy Weaver, a Nebo
School District teacher who unabashedly proclaimed her lesbian lifestyle."
Meanwhile, Provo Daily Herald Managing Editor Mike Patrick's commentary on
Weaver's struggle begins, "By the time it goes to court, it's too late. Too
much damage has been done. So helplessly we watch the Wendy Weaver saga
spiraling toward its inevitable unhappy ending." He talks about a man who,
though a "well-educated, interesting, interested, highly motivated, superb"
teacher, "because he was discovered to be gay, his career came crashing
down. Who could claim victory then? Citizens who succeeded in removing one
of the best teachers the town had ever known? Students who would never feel
the surge of intellectual energy that only truly inspirational human beings
can generate? I, too, have benefited from gay educators along the way, not
all of them in the formal context of a classroom." He ends, "Many of us are
far too busy damning the behavior of others to take the first steps toward
understanding. Whether it's fear that drives us or an emptiness inside that
we desperately fill with the most convenient datum, I don't know. But I do
know this: When we can look upon our fellow man in the light of what they
are instead of the shadows of what we don't understand, maybe then our
courts will be deprived of their precious, winless battles."

The Deseret News relies on inaccurate terms like "lesbian lifestyle" to
describe the life of Wendy Weaver, a parent with a longtime companion, a
spotless career as a teacher and a winning record as a volleyball coach,
and "unabashedly proclaimed" for a woman who kept her sexual orientation
secret for 18 years as an educator, coming out to a student last year only
when the student asked her if she was a lesbian. The Herald's managing
editor moves beyond radical religious catch phrases to get to the heart of
the matter.

Encourage the Deseret News to drop deceptive anti-gay buzz words like
"lesbian lifestyle" from their lexicon. Also, congratulate the Provo Daily
Herald and Mike Patrick for the courage to take a rational, compassionate
stand in the face of profound hostility, lies and misinformation.
Contact:
… Don C. Woodward, Managing Editor, Deseret News, P.O. Box 1257, Salt Lake
City, UT 84110, fax:  801.237.2121, e-mail: letters@desnews.com;
… Mike Patrick, Editor, Provo Daily Herald, 1555 N. Freedom Blvd., Provo,
UT 84604-2519, fax: 801.373.5489, e-mail: mpatrick@heraldextra.com.

GQ Scores Big With NFL Story
The January GQ: Gentlemen's Quarterly has a lengthy, excellent story about
homophobia in the National Football League (NFL) and Dave Kopay's struggle
as the only outspoken openly gay professional football player, retired or
otherwise. "Twenty years ago, Kopay was a sociological phenomenon, the
first NFL player to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality," writer David
Kamp says. "Since he took his great leap, he has been joined by precisely
two people: his old Redskins teammate Jerry Smith, whose death from AIDS in
1986 occasioned posthumous discussion of his homosexuality, and a former
guard with the New York Giants named Roy Simmons, who outed himself on
Donahue in 1992 and disappeared from public view." Kamp points out how
all-pervasive the silence around homosexuality in the NFL is today in spite
of Kopay's courageous move in the 1975 to come out. "A whole new generation
has come up never knowing there was this gay guy who played football," he
writes. He discusses the issue of the overt anti-gay hostility of today's
NFL with league spokespeople, sportswriters and Kopay's former teammates.
Finally, he gives an intimate portrait of Kopay, an unlikely hero and
accidental activist. It ends with the suggestion to Nike to feature Kopay
in one of their ad campaigns: "[Kopay] knows what it's like to pay the
price of ostracization from the game he loves. He was out there ages ago,
with nothing to gain but his own sense of well-being. He was good at what
he did. He has survived, even remained in love with the game in spite of
everything that's happened. So why not?"

Please thank GQ for this insightful article which calls for greater
awareness around issues of sexual orientation in pro football while
honoring a living gay hero.
Contact: Art Cooper, Editor In Chief, GQ: Gentlemen's Quarterly, 350
Madison Ave., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017-3704, fax: 212.880.8757.

Ohio Paper Tells Tragic Story of Gay Teen Suicide
The January 4 Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal featured the heart-wrenching
story of Robbie Kirkland, a gay 15-year-old who killed himself on January
2, 1997. "But Robbie's memory is as vivid as ever, in part because of his
[devoutly Catholic] mother's determination to use her son's fate as an
instrument for saving other struggling gay children," it says. His mother,
Leslie Sadasivan, "has become a public speaker and activist, mostly
targeting educators to make them aware they have gay teens suffering in
silence in their classrooms," it continues. "The year since her son's death
has seen no real progress, and she fears for children who continue to slip
through society's cracks. But she is unwavering in her mission."
Particularly crushing for those close to Robbie was the fact that from the
time he had identified as gay, they had been incredibly supportive,
including bringing him to therapy and encouraging him to join a gay support
group, "but despite loving reassurances from his family that being gay was
part of God's plans for him, the sensitive St. Ignatius High School
freshman was mortally wounded from years of taunting by classmates." He
moved high schools several times, but the taunts followed him, the article
says, and when he died he left behind "a shattered family wondering what
else they could have done to protect him. 'He realized when he was 10 that
he was gay,' Sadasivan said, "and I think he saw that it wasn't something
he could control. Some kids can repress those feelings until they're older,
but he couldn't. I wish he could. If he could have repressed it until he
was old enough to deal with it, I think he'd be alive today.'" In addition,
the Beacon Journal featured a poem Robbie had written two years before he
killed himself called, "I'm Dying and No One Cares."

Please thank the Akron Beacon Journal for honoring Robbie in death by
telling his and his mother's story, which makes clear the need for support
and open and honest dialogue in schools on issues regarding sexual
orientation.
Contact: Akron Beacon Journal, 44 E. Exchange Street, Akron, OH 44328, fax:
330.996.3520, e-mail: ohio@akron.infi.net.

Orlando Reconsiders In the Life
Recently, Orlando, Florida's WMFE agreed to finally begin airing In the
Life, the gay and lesbian news magazine series which airs on over 100
public television stations across America. Last year in an Orlando Sentinel
story, WMFE President Stephen McKenny Steck said that In the Life has "an
advocacy or promotional role which proselytizes a lifestyle not generally
accepted by the Central Florida community."  On December 17 WMFE issued a
memo announcing the reversed decision, stating that after "thoughtful
discussion" the staff and station's board decided to air the show since
"the Central Florida community is slightly more willing and tolerant to
accept a program like In the Life in 1997 than the surrounding media hype
and conservative environment in 1993 would have allowed."

On October 17, 1997, GLAADAlert encouraged national subscribers to contact
Stephen Steck and WMFE.  Local and national pressure by the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender community is largely credited with making the
station reexamine their refusal to air the award winning show. "This is a
perfect example of what can happen when gay and lesbian people hold mass
media accountable," John Catania, Director of Communications, told GLAAD.
"Television must be inclusive and must reflect the true face of America."

Write WMFE and thank them for including In the Life in their lineup.
Contact: Stephen McKinney Steck, President, WMFE, 11510 East Colonial
Drive, Orlando, FL 32817-4699, fax: 407.273.3613.

House & Garden's "Domestic Bliss" Includes Gay Couple
The January issue of House & Garden features a gay male couple, Tom
Christopher and Marty Asher discussing the pitfalls and perils of shopping
for plants via mail-order catalogues. The story, written by Billy Norwich,
is accompanied by a cartoon of two men looking through the "Bloom and
Blossom 1998" catalogue. Without sensation, the magazine includes the two
men's humorous and decidedly gay perspective on the subject.

Please thank House & Garden for this casual inclusion of gay green thumbs.
Contact: Billy Norwich and Dominaque Browning, Editor, House & Garden, 342
Madison Ave., 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10073.

The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation.
GLAAD promotes 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.

Contact GLAAD by e-mail at glaad@glaad.org or by phone at
 213.658.6775 (Los Angeles), 212.807.1700 (New York), 415.861.2244 (San
Francisco), 202.986.1360 (Washington, DC), and 404.607.1204 (Atlanta)

Feel free to pass GLAADAlert on to friends, family and associates!

Report defamation in the media by calling GLAAD's Toll-Free AlertLine!
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"GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered
trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc.