GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 14, 1994

Evenings Out

A pro-gay

entry in the video

war

Dee Mosbacher

A new tape produced in response to the video wars launched by the Radical Right has been released by lesbian activist Dee Mosbacher and Frances Reid. Mosbacher is the daughter of Robert Mosbacher, former Secretary of Commerce in the Bush administration and chief fundraiser for George Bush's 1992 re-election campaign.

Straight From The Heart comes at a time of increasing hate crimes and initiatives proposed to codify discrimination against lesbians and gays. The video movingly confronts the lies and distortions of the Gay Agenda-type videos churned out by the multimillion-dollar political machine of the radical right. Eight months in development, the video profiles parents who have come to a new understanding of their gay and lesbian children, and now courageously wish to share their stories.

The video opens with narrator Dr. Robert M. Brown, who is a member of the clergy, reminding us that as Americans, one of our deeply held values is fairness. He implores us to use our sense of fairness as we watch and listen to the stories being told to us.

Roberta and Wayne Schow of Idaho lost their eldest son to AIDS in 1986. They recall their shock when he came out to them, and their slow but successful journey to understanding throughout his battle with the illness and his subsequent death.

Tom Potter, who is chief of police in a Midwest city, is also the father of a lesbian daughter. Katy, who is also a cop, was raised, Tom says "to be a normal heterosexual... instead we got a normal homosexual." He goes on to say that gays and lesbians are the one group where the discrimination digs down into their own families. He also recalls a time when it was socially acceptable to make racial and sexist slurs, but now it seems that gays and lesbians that are the one remaining target.

In one of the films most poignant moments, Roscoe Thorne, father of discharged gay Navy pilot Tracy Thorne, tells the story of when he was told by his boss to make a young woman leave the soda fountain at the drugstore where he was employed, simply because she was black. With tears in his eyes, he recalls how bad he felt, and wonders how it must have felt for her. "At that point I knew that I was beginning to think for myself," he says.

Getting people to think for themselves was an important goal of the filmmakers. They produced the video with a broad target audience in mind, hoping that the simple truth would be a powerful opponent to the lies and propaganda found in anti-gay and lesbian videos. It will be circulated in states that are facing anti-lesbian and gay ballot initiatives, and will be shown to legislators, educators, church members, and anyone who has been left confused and misinformed by the hateful rhetoric of the radical right.

Although Mosbacher has been an activist all of her adult life, her commitment to fighting the radical right became a central theme after watching the gay-bashing of the 1992 Republican National Convention.

"I feel a tremendous sense of urgency as we face the dangerous and well-funded radical right," Mosbacher says. "For some of us, this may be a matter of life or death."

"This video is about saving lives," she adds, "lives that may otherwise be lost to the brutality of homophobia."

Straight From The Heart can be purchased for $39.95 by writing to Woman Vision at 3145 Geary Boulevard, Box 421, San Francisco, CA 94118. ✔