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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE MARCH 10, 1995

ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS

Even in the '90s, 'It's always Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!'

by John Graves

Marcia Brady's best girlfriend falls in love with her in the newly released Brady Bunch Movie. Director Betty Thomas, former costar of the popular police drama Hill Street Blues, told USA Today that the lesbian in the original script for the movie was stereotypical, and she ordered the part rewritten. Thomas said that she told the writers, "I can't do that. I don't think it's funny, but I am interested in the character." Thomas went on to say that executives at Paramount Pictures "were nervous, but they were cool. They said okay."

USA Today reports that Ru Paul will be featured in an ad campaign by M.A.C., a Toronto-based cosmetics firm, making him the first gay man to model commercially in drag. Ru Paul appeared in the ABC sitcom Sister, Sister in February in what may be a recurring role, and will play a nurse—a man, he won't be in drag-in an upcoming movie produced by cable's USA Network.

USA Today reports that GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is protesting a scene in a recent episode of the NBC police series Law & Order in which a detective makes a number of homophobic comments when interviewing a lesbian couple during an investigation. The detective, Mike Logan, and his partner were investigating a doctor who was using his own sperm, instead of a donor's, for artificial insemination. After the interview, Logan compared being raised by lesbians to growing up with "two alcoholics," and both cops mock the idea of lesbian couples being good parents.

GLAAD's Ellen Carton charged, "This gratuitous exchange promotes homophobia by targeting our community where we are least understood and most discriminated

against: our role as parents and committed partners." NBC and Law & Order producer Dick Wolf say that the dialogue was in keeping with a cop who doesn't like women. Wolf called GLAAD's statement a "hysterical overreaction" and said that the Logan character has displayed an "underlying misogny." Wolf went on to say that, "No show has dealt more honestly with gays and lesbians than ours." The show has previously had sensitive portrayals of gay men, including one episode where the detectives investigated patrol officers who didn't back up a gay colleague, leaving him to die in a shootout.

Those of you who enjoyed last month's broadcast of the outstanding NBC movie Serving in Silence: The Gerthe Cammermeyer Story should let NBC and its local affiliates know how you feel. Send your thoughts to NBC, Movies and Miniseries, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York 10112. Also write to William Scaffide, Vice President and General Manager or Richard O'Dell, Manager of Programming and Production, c/o WKYC-Channel 3, 1403 E. 6th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. According to various reports, Serving sold all of its commercial time at full price and got very high Nielson ratings.

Buck Harris, host of The Gay '90s, WHK1420 AM radio's live, gay call-in show, has two new cohosts: Robert Fleming and Joanne Cavanaugh. The Gay '90s can be heard on WHK-1420 AM in Cleveland every Sunday from 10 to 11 PM.

An article in USA Today's business section discussed firms like shoe manufacturers Nike and Kenneth Cole, clothing retailer Benetton and nutritional supplement manufacturer Advera who are using HIV-positive models to raise awareness of AIDS and to reach the HIV-positive population. The demand has been great enough for California's

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USA Today should be commended for its coverage of news of importance to our community and especially for its coverage of Olympic diver Greg Louganis' revelation that he is living with AIDS. Many facets of the story have been covered extensively over the past few weeks in both the news and sports sections.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's television critic Tom Feran needs some educating. Last week, in a favorable review of the NBC sitcom Friends, Feran remarked that the show's subplot about a lead character's pregnant, lesbian ex-wife and her partner made Friends "not a show for the kids." C'mon Tom, lesbian, gay and bisexual parents and families are a fact of life! Other tough family issues are discussed in shows made especially for "kids" and Friends deals with a gay family that holds to "traditional family values" as closely as possible without resorting to erroneous and homophobic storylines, such as the gay parent suddenly changeing sexual orientation and becoming heterosexual.

My cohost on Gaywaves, Scott Bibbs, tells me that the mystery movie series airing at 9 pm Tuesdays on cable's Arts and Entertainment Channel has had excellent portrayals of lesbians and gays for several weeks now. Check it out.

The story of pirate captains Anne Bonney and Mary Read is being told on cable's Discovery Channel series Pirates.

ABC's Good Morning America Sunday program recently presented "Life's Tough Choices," a report on lesbians, gays and bisexuals coming out of the closet.

Lois Bromfield, who came out of the closet last year, has performed on the VH-1 Channel's Stand Up Spotlight show. Bromfield is also a writer for the popular ABC sitcom Roseanne.

The HBO comedy series Hardcore TV features lots of gay skits including gay magicians Sigmund and Ray and a TV shopping channel offering "the lost photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe."

The February 25 edition of TV Guide gave a cheer in its "Cheers and Jeers" column to In The Life, the only television series on broadcast TV produced entirely by and about the gay community. TV Guide went on to report

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that In The Life, which went on the air three years ago with six affiliates, now can be seen on nearly 70 stations. In The Life has just begun airing on the Akron-Youngstown PBS outlet, WEAO-WNEO Channel 45-49, with the underwriting help of Among Friends Gallery in Peninsula. Gallery owners C.J. Crawford and Christopher Hixon, who had previously contributed over $10,000 in merchandise to WVIZ for the station's fundraising auction, shifted most of their support from WVIZ because the station decided to cancel In the Life and for the station's lessthan-enthusiastic promotion of the show.

Gaywaves correspondents Jim McGrattan and Dave Haskell, sleuthing in the library again, report that the February 3 edition of the National Catholic Reporter features a cover story entitled "Today's Sinners in the Eyes of the Vatican May Very Well be Tomorrow's Saints" by Dawn Gibeau, which includes in its "Ranks of the Harassed" Father Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, who founded the New Wave Ministry for lesbians and gays. Nugent and Gramick have been the subject of several Vatican investigations for their efforts.

The Reporter went on to say that Nugent and Gramick were recently awarded the Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice for their ministry of justice and reconciliation for lesbian and gay Catholics. The February 10 edition contains a piece by Father Richard McBrien supporting Bishop Jacques Gaillot, who was fired by the Vatican for, among other things, his position recognizing and honoring committed lesbian and gay couples. Gaillot also came under fire for his statement in an interview in a gay magazine that "Homosexuals will go before us to the kingdom of God." The Reporter has also honored the late gay historian John Boswell, whose research into the early Church's acceptance of homosexuality, including blessing same-sex marriages, has caused quite a stir. Lesbian and gay Catholics who would like to subscribe to this supportive paper can do so by calling the National Catholic Reporter tollfree at 800-333-7373.

Two children's books about lesbian and gay families, Michael Willhoite's Daddy's Roommate and Leslea Newman's Heather Has Two Mommies, made the top of the American Library Association's 1994 list of books people have tried to ban from libraries. Also on the list was Charles Silverstein's The New Joy of Gay Sex. Daddy's Roommate has been at the top of the list for the last two years in a row.

WRUW 91.1 FM in Cleveland, which has aired Gaywaves and its predecessor Radio Free Lambda for 20 years, is holding a "Radiothon" March 20 through March 26 to raise funds to improve the station's programming. Support the non-commercial station and its public-affairs programs, which also include the national women's issues show 51 Percent, and the multicultural show Ofo Ase, by calling in a pledge to 216-368-2208.

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