NOVEMBER 22, 1996 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRoNiCLE 23

ON THE AIR OFF THE PRESS

Same-sex marriage and gay parenting get TV play

by John Graves

Lesbian parents-to-be Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher were interviewed on Dateline NBC a few weeks ago. Etheridge and Cypher were also featured in an interview in a special report on gay parenting in the November 4 edition of Newsweek.

Same-sex weddings were the sole topic on the ABC news magazine show Turning Point a few weeks ago. Featured interviews included a divorced mother whose sister and daughter reacted differently to her upcoming lesbian wedding, two men who faced some challenges in getting onto wedding registers in stores, and an Episcopal priest who helped plan a same-sex wedding.

Just before the election, USA Today ran a half-page advertisement decrying President Clinton's support for the gay community. The ad, paid for by a new group calling themselves Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, complained about the fact that the president's support for our community had not even become an issue for the Dole campaign.

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality was founded by a former reporter for the conservative Washington Times newspaper, who now publishes the Lambda Report, an anti-gay publication. The ad also contained a coupon asking for money to run ads in more papers and offering supporters a free copy of the ad to run in their local paper. Thankfully, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which ran a similar ad from another group last year, did not publish this latest homophobic ad.

Well, here it is. The film version of Jeffrey, the hit Broadway play about gay life in New York City, has begun airing on cable's Showtime.

Another star has come out of the closet!

Actress Sally Kirkland told an ET Online chat at Microsoft Network's coverage of a museum opening, that “I'm exploring my bisexuality right now.”

Masturbation and celibacy are examined on Sex in the '90s Part IX: The Safest Sex of All, the newest program in MTV's video magazine show on sexual topics.

Jeanie Boulet, broadcast TV's first HIVpositive main character, shares her life with us on the NBC medical drama ER every Thursday at 10 PM. Boulet is played by African-American actress Gloria Reuben. Look for an article on Reuben and her ER character in the November 18 edition of Entertainment Weekly.

A woman looks forward to seeing her gay brother at her family's Thanksgiving dinner in Jodie Foster's 1995 film Home for the Holidays, now playing on the Showtime.

Mark, an openly gay radio talk show host, was featured in a week-long story in the comic strip Doonesbury a few weeks ago. It seems Mark now has a boyfriend, a Log Cabin Republican I believe!

The so-called "Jenny Jones” murder trial concluded this past week. Jonathon Schmitz was convicted of second degree murder for the shotgun slaying of Scott Amedure after Amedure revealed he was attracted to Schmitz on the Jenny Jones talk show last year.

The jury reduced the charge of first degree murder against Schmitz to second degree before rendering their guilty verdict. Now, instead of a possible life sentence with no parole, Schmitz faces eight years to life with the possibility of parole. The trial has attracted national attention because both the prosecution and the defense have tried to shift blame for the murder from Schmitz to the Jenny Jones show.

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Media pundits and talk shows are still trying to figure out how much blame to place on Jenny Jones and other talk shows and are still avoiding talk about homophobia and anti-gay hate crimes as a real problem facing the nation. They seem to say: If you are lesbian or gay you should expect this kind of reaction from straight people, and the Jenny Jones producers should have expected what occurred.

Helen Eisenbach, author of Lesbianism Made Easy, wrote an article on the emergence of lesbian themes and characters in mainstream movies for the New York Times that was reprinted in other papers, includ-

ing the November 11 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The article pointed out that, with so many mainstream films having lesbian characters, lesbian and gay audiences are demanding more from independent filmmakers who have traditionally produced most films with lesbian and gay themes.

The article went on to note two upcoming films: Voleurs (Thieves), starring Catherine Deneuve as a grandmother hopelessly in love with a younger woman, and All Over Me, an adolescent coming-of-age film from the perspective of a lesbian teenager.

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