JULY 19, 1996 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 9
SPEAK OUT
Ad seems to say: Being gay is worse then worse then drug use
by Mubarak S. Dahir
As soon as you see the discombobulated young teenager on your television screen, you can't help but feel sorry for him. Even before he tells his sad story, you know something is wrong. Terribly wrong.
You see it in his glassy blue eyes, in the disheveled, dirty blond hair hanging in his face, and in his crumpled black T-shirt.
He starts by telling you he didn't think of the ramifications of using heroin, of how it
would wreck his life. As he talks, it's obvi-
ous that the conse-
quences he describes are getting progres-
sively worse.
First, he lost his job, he says. Then he was out on the street, homeless. As he tells you this, the neon world behind him spins out of control. But the worst is yet to come.
says the ad is attempting to use fear of homosexuality as a scare tactic to keep teenagers off drugs. It is a tactic that not only plays to society's worst prejudices, but one that will ultimately fail to curb the tide of drug use.
Finally, and perhaps most damaging, is the way the spot presents "having sex with men❞ as the worst of all possible things to happen to the young man's life, a social ill worse even than drug use.
It is a message that lesbian and gay youth-already more vulnerable than their
This sentiment is conveyed in several ways in the ad. First, as the out-of-luck heroin addict divulges the downward spiral of events in his life, the circumstances of his life become more and more severe. With the reference to homosexuality as the last catastrophe, it's easy to get the feeling that this is indeed the most hor-
heterosexual counterparts to suicide, homelessness and alcohol and drug abuse— hear loud and clear from too many voices in our society.
Finally, he says, now averting his eyes downward in shame, “I have sex with men for money, to support my habit." At this, the desperate young man on your screen breaks into tears. "I wish I didn't have to be like this..." he finishes.
This is the scene from one of ten newlyreleased nationwide public service spots from the Partnership for a Drug Free America. And it is one that has lesbian and gay organizations up in protest.
Alan Klein, a spokesperson for the New York-based organization Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, says there are several disturbing problems with the spot.
First, he says, there is the insinuation that drug use leads to sex with men, a suggestion that is, of course, patently false. Second, he
rible thing that could happen to the poor kid-worse than losing his job, worse than losing his home. Worse, even, than being on drugs.
This is not the first time we've seen that kind of sentiment in our society, much to the detriment of public health. Since the AIDS epidemic broke 15 years ago, it forced many gay men to come out with both their sexual orientation and their illness.
But in some households, and even in some entire communities, it is considered far worse to be gay than to be a drug user. So even though large numbers of people in these communities are contracting HIV through unsafe sexual practices-including homosexual sex-the leaders of those communities continue to deny that gay sexual activity exists in their fold, and instead point primarily to the problem of injection drug
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use. Meanwhile, the gay teens in their midst continue to become infected at alarmingly high rates.
To some, it is still apparently far more horrible to be a homosexual than to be a drug addict.
It is a message that lesbian and gay youth—already more vulnerable than their heterosexual counterparts to suicide, homelessness and alcohol and drug abusehear loud and clear from too many voices in our society.
Hopefully, it is one they will not be hearing much longer from the Partnership for a Drug Free America. After protests about the ad were made by GLAAD, the Partnership
says it has decided to revisit this spot, and edit out the references to sex with men.
Leigh Leventhal, assistant director of external affairs for the Partnership says, "It was never our intention to make any such statements about homosexuality." She said the reference to sex was intended to focus on prostitution, not gay sex. However, she said her organization would edit out the offensive passages "so the discussion about this ad can return to the issue of drug use."
I can't help but think that even the sad young man in the ad would be grateful for that.
Mubarak Dahir is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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