Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 17:11:03 -0700 From: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Subject: GLAADAlert - September 10, 1998 GLAADALERT - September 10, 1998 The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation GLAADAlert Index: 1) New York Times Shines Cold Light of Day on Morning Party 2) Chicago Tribune Reviews Workplace Rights - and Finds Them Lacking 3) San Francisco Examiner Looks at Lesbian and Gay Surrogate Grandparents 4) Confronting Black-on-Black Violence Against Transgender People 5) L.A. Times Examines Debate Over Russian River's Soul 6) Seattle Times' Eloquent Endorsement for a "Formidable" Candidate 1) New York Times Shines Cold Light of Day on Morning Party The Morning Party, an annual Fire Island fund-raiser for Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), "began as a relatively modest affair, a respite for the living and remembrance of the dead that was held in daylight, so that even the ill might be able to go," Frank Bruni writes in the Sept. 8 New York Times. Today, the event "has evolved into a glamorous social event that attracts hordes of gay men to Fire Island and reliably raises enormous sums of money for Gay Men's Health Crisis. ... But the hangover has been formidable. ... Many gay men have questioned the propriety of the group's endorsement of a party that seems to inspire the kind of drug consumption widely thought to increase the likelihood of unsafe sexual behavior and the spread of AIDS." The controversy has heightened, Bruni says, because dozens of similar events have sprung up nationally; they've become known as circuit parties because "some of them attract the same core crowd, lavishly muscled and wealthy enough to buy plane tickets and plenty of drugs." Bruni quotes Alan Brown of New Haven, Conn., who annually attends about two dozen of the events, as saying, "People have been leaving parties in ambulances routinely for three years now." Bruni states that Brown and others emphasize that many who attend "use illegal drugs infrequently, if ever, and that a vast majority of gay men have never been to" a circuit party. Bruni also details recent efforts to curtail drug use at the party, but writes, "What most alarms many gay men and public health experts is not the drug use itself but the implications for responsible sexual conduct." He quotes Ron Stall, epidemiology professor at the University of California at San Francisco, as saying drug use by gay men "is a strong, significant predictor of becoming HIV-positive." The article presents an unsensationalized examination of a controversy within the gay male community. Bruni establishes early and prominently that only a small portion of the community attends the events - and that most of those at the parties do not use drugs. He does not flinch from establishing that drug use has become a hallmark of some of the events, or of exploring the controversy that surrounds GMHC's sponsorship of the Fire Island party. Calm and fact-based public discussion of even controversial issues almost always benefits everyone involved. Please thank the New York Times for its thorough and objective reporting, which serves to illumine a controversy among gay men without either demeaning or sensationalizing that community. Contact: Bill Keller, Managing Editor, New York Times, 229 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036-3959, fax: 212.556.3690, e-mail: letters@nytimes.com (include phone number when sending e-mails) 2) Chicago Tribune Reviews Workplace Rights - and Finds Them Lacking For most of his post-college life, tells Dale Hall in a Sept. 8 Chicago Tribune piece, he wanted nothing but to manage a Red Lobster restaurant. As an associate manager at 34, he looked to be well on his way - until a new manager learned he was gay. Six subsequent months of harassment culminated in his being fired. He sued - and the chain's parent entity, Darden Restaurants, responded in part "by attacking Cook County's human rights ordinance as unconstitutional," writes John Bigness. "Although the challenge was quickly dropped after an enormous outcry from gay activists, the case still serves as a reminder to the gay community that the legal protections that have been secured will continue to come under attack. It also points out that many victims of discrimination have no way to fight back because most parts of the country don't provide equal treatment under the law for homosexuals." Bigness continues: "To be sure, there are lots of people who don't believe that homosexuals should have any special protections under the law. Christian groups like the Family Research Council in Washington fear that extending civil rights laws to gays will open the floodgates to pedophiles who think they deserve legal protections, weaken rights for religious people who object to homosexuality on biblical principle and expose employers to an avalanche of harassment claims." Whatever such religious groups espouse, Bigness writes, Darden Restaurants states firmly that it opposes any discrimination based on sexual orientation. Then, however, Bigness recounts two other cases in which Darden chain employees in other states claimed they were fired because of their sexual orientation. "Unlike Hall," Bigness writes, "neither Jon Trimmer of Grand Rapids nor Kendall Hamilton of Oklahoma City could sue Darden Restaurants because they live in cities and states that don't protect homosexuals against employment discrimination." The article, which ran under the headline, "For Gays, Courts Not Always Available," used one employee's high-profile case as a springboard to examining the nation's appalling lack of workplace protections for lesbians and gay men. Although the report failed to mention various well-publicized federal efforts to achieve workplace protection, including the failed Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) proposed in 1996, it did use individual anecdotes to drive home the point that most Americans can lose their jobs for no reason other than their employers' distaste for their sexual orientation. The article's principal fault lies in Bigness' use of a false assertion credited to the Family Research Council (FRC) that associates gay men with pedophiles. While it is certainly fair of him to include the opinions of the FRC, he does not refute the claim with either an opposing statement or citation of statistical research. Please thank the Chicago Tribune for its timely and telling examination of how American lesbians and gay men often lack even basic workplace protections based on their sexual orientation. Please explain, however, that even a passing reference linking gay men with pedophilia reinforces a groundless stereotype that has long persisted, fostering significant and harmful discrimination against gay men. Contact: Ann Marie Lipinski, Managing Editor, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4003, fax: 312.222.2598, e-mail: tribletter@aol.com 3) San Francisco Examiner Looks at Lesbian and Gay Surrogate Grandparents Dotty Fowler, 70, never thought she'd be a grandmother, writes Ray Delgado in the Sept. 5 San Francisco Examiner: "After all, she never had any children. Single lesbian moms just weren't heard of in the '50s and '60s. But thanks to the miracle of classified advertising, she and her close friend Sarah Davis, 74, found themselves a baby boy to shower with grandmotherly love." The pair, Delgado writes, "are the poster women for the gay and lesbian grandparenting movement that has sprung up." The listing Fowler and Davis placed, in which they advertised their search for a surrogate grandchild, helped motivate a collaboration between the Alternative Family Project, a resource and training agency that helps lesbians and gay men who want to become parents, and the Gay and Lesbian Outreach to Elders program. Now, Delgado writes, infant Sam has six different people to call grandparents: The birth mother's parents, the birth father's parents and Fowler and Davis. Delgado quotes the birth mother, Sandy Seagift, as saying, "The more the merrier. To (Sam), love is love." This upbeat article is among the first to examine a natural outgrowth of the Bay Area's boom in same-gender parenting: a corresponding - albeit fledgling - boom in same-gender surrogate grandparenting. Please express to the San Francisco Examiner the importance of such reporting: It paints a vibrant and positive portrait of the determination and innovation that same-gender couples bring to the business of creating and raising families. Contact: Sharon Rosenhause, Managing Editor, San Francisco Examiner, PO Box 7260, San Francisco, CA 94120-7260, rosenhause@examiner.com 4) Confronting Black-on-Black Violence Against Transgender People Cei Bell writes in the Sept. 8 Philadelphia Daily News, "I first became aware of my gender difference not by waking up one morning when I was 3 and saying, 'I'm a transsexual,' but by the severe reaction others had to something that was a natural part of myself. ... The first time an adult man tried to murder me for being a sissy, I was 7, and this grown man chased me from 19th and Fitzwater to 21st and Fitzwater but I screamed so much, he gave up." He tells of being robbed by another African-American - and of how the African-American police officer who responded harassed him "for several hours at the police station ... [the idea] that he should have been looking for the criminal who robbed me didn't even occur to him." Bell matter-of-factly continues to recount a life pocked by violence and danger: "A dozen times since I was 7, men have tried to murder me for being a 'faggot.' Most were African-American. I and another transsexual counted up all the drag queens and transsexuals we knew who had been murdered and came up with 13." Homophobia, Bell writes, "is not exclusive to black people" but, "Being black makes me very aware of the homophobia in my community. ... I am actually more likely to die from homophobic assault than from AIDS. AIDS prevention is within my control." Bell reports that a Pennsylvania crime tracking effort "documents that 16 percent of African-American lesbians and 33 percent of African-American gay men have been assaulted, compared to 11 percent of white lesbians and 28 percent of white gay men." He includes supporting quotes from other African-American lesbians, gay men and transgender persons, including Tyrone Smith, executive director of Unity. Bell quotes Smith as saying, "'At some point every African-American gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered person is confronted [with homophobia] and needs to know how to deal with it ... I've been beaten and attacked just because I am a black gay man walking down the street.'" Bell's column is a forceful and compelling first-person account of challenges he faces daily as an African-American transgender individual. Bell's flat assertions are backed both by arresting personal anecdotes and by statistics. His column tackles a sensitive and little-discussed issue with the simplicity and power of unadorned first-person narrative. This is an opinion page piece; by definition, its purpose is to spark healthy debate. Please express to the Philadelphia Daily News your appreciation for its providing a platform for a seldom-heard community - because the more sensitive and controversial the issue, the greater the need for such forthright discourse. Contact: Morris Thompson, Editorial/Opinion Page Editor, Philadelphia Daily News, 400 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130-4015, fax: 215.854.5910, e-mail: dailynews.opinion@phillynews.com 5) L.A. Times Examines Debate Over Russian River's Soul They agree on one thing along the Russian River north of San Francisco, writes Maria L. La Ganga in the Sept. 8 Los Angeles Times: "No one in this resort region wants the world to think of their hometown the way it looks on the news most winters" - as a home to floods and landslides. "After that, however, all bets are off." The Russian River, La Ganga writes, "is still one of the top 10 gay summer resort areas in the world ... but questions remain about whether the gay heyday of the 1980s will be back to revive a flagging economy - and just how welcome a new generation of muscle boys might be here." She recounts the area's development into a Fire Island or P-Town for the West Coast, and the ongoing debate about whether it should continue to be a primarily lesbian and gay resort, a family destination or a higher-priced enclave. La Ganga closes by telling of an infusion of county development funds that has sparked hope that "maybe, just maybe, the beautiful young men who put this area on the gay resort map will return to test the locals' theory that a family resort and a gay resort can be the same resort." La Ganga's lengthy article presents a detailed and mostly positive view of the popular resort area and its revitalization by an infusion of lesbian and gay funds. It accurately conveys the extensive manner in which lesbians and gay men are woven into the fabric of the community. But two of La Ganga's characterizations of one type of gay man to represent the entire community - "muscle boys" and as "beautiful young men" - can be described as constricting and inaccurate stereotypes. Please let the Los Angeles Times know that while La Ganga's reporting was thorough and generally accurate, and you appreciate her attention to issues within the lesbian and gay community, her repeated use of stereotypes was problematic, serving to perpetuate damaging myths. Contact: Michael Parks, Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, fax: 213.237.7679, e-mail: letters@latimes.com 6) Seattle Times' Eloquent Endorsement for a "Formidable" Candidate With an incumbent facing questions "about his energy level to serve if re-elected," a Sept. 6 Seattle Times editorial implied that the winner of Washington state's 2nd congressional district Democratic primary will be headed to that other Washington. In that case, the paper said, the best man for the job is a woman - and, only incidentally, a lesbian. The paper endorsed retired Army Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, who "became a national hero" by fighting successfully against being drummed out of a distinguished military career after she came out. Cammermeyer and her opponent, Fran Einterz, are "two solid Democrats," the Times writes. "If the endorsement were for mayor" or county commissioner, "Einterz would be the choice. The election, however, is about service in Congress and melding local issues into a much larger view." This year, for the first time, four openly lesbian candidates, including Cammermeyer, seek House seats. If she wins, she could be the first openly lesbian representative sent to Congress. The Times addressed the issue this has raised in the campaign by stating, "Voters looking at Cammermeyer face a question that is really more fair and politically pragmatic than mean-spirited or narrow minded. Is Cammermeyer a one-issue candidate whose entire motivation for running is to elect a homosexual to Congress? Or is she an intelligent, dignified retired military officer with exceptional educational and professional credentials, who is also a lesbian? Is her campaign about a private agenda or the 2nd district? Our conclusion is Cammermeyer has extraordinary gifts for continued public service. Her gracious, steady presence makes her a formidable Democratic nominee in the 2nd district." One of the more valuable services an editorial page can provide is the endorsing of candidates for local political office - and the most valuable endorsements are those that give voters constructs by which to judge the candidates. This is such an editorial. It presents the strengths of both candidates - then gives solid, job-related reasons for preferring Cammermeyer. It properly acknowledges the campaign issues inevitably caused by her sexual orientation - but also assigns those issues their proper weight. Please tell the Seattle Times of your appreciation for its fair and sensible handling of what, sadly, remains the sensitive issue of a candidate's sexual orientation. Please discuss with the Times your appreciation for the service it has provided its readers in assessing these candidates in terms of attributes that should provide voters the best representation in Congress. Contact: Alex MacLeod, Managing Editor, Seattle Times, 1120 John St., Seattle, WA 98109-5321, fax: 206.382.6760, e-mail via WWW: http://www.seattletimes.com 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 (LA), 212.807.1700 (NY), 415.861.2244 (SF), 202.986.1360 (DC), 404.876.1398 (Atlanta) and 816.756.5991 (Kansas City) Feel free to pass GLAADAlert on to friends, family and associates! Report defamation in the media by calling GLAAD's Toll-Free AlertLine! 1-800-GAY-MEDIA (1-800-429-6334) Visit GLAAD Online at http://www.glaad.org "GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc. 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