OCTOBER 24, 1997 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 21

ON THE AIR▪ OFF THE PRESS

After parental advisory flap, Ellen will get a girlfriend

by John Graves

Ellen DeGeneres, who won an Emmy award this year for Writing, Comedy Series, was featured on the cover of the October 11 TV Guide. In the feature article DeGeneres says that her coming out was about personal freedom and that she had no intention of becoming a "poster child for lesbianism."

DeGeneres even tried to persuade ABC to end the Ellen show at the end of last season, and recently turned down a $3 million book deal for her coming out story. Now, however, DeGeneres says she is glad the show is back on this season.

After denying her show would focus on her character's love life last year, DeGeneres is starting to become more assured and her character will get a girlfriend this season, played by Lisa Darr. Presently, Darr plays the lover of a murdered lesbian officer on NYPD Blue.

Darr will portray Laurie, a mortgage broker and mother of a 12-year-old who happens to be an old friend of DeGeneres' character Ellen Morgan. Although Darr has been signed for only four shows by a cautious ABC, DeGeneres has been pushing for her character to have a long-term relationship.

Most recently, DeGeneres threatened to pull her show from ABC after the network inserted an extra parental advisory on the air just before the show in which she playfully kissed co-star Joely Fisher. The show already has a TV-14 rating. The network was also balking at a script where Ellen Morgan and her new girlfriend are to head off to the bedroom at the end of the show. (One report says the bedroom door will open to reveal the twin beds of 1950s TV-with Rob and Laura Petrie sitting primly atop them.)

ABC cannot afford to lose Ellen, however, because the show has been in the top 20 in the ratings.

Despite tabloid speculation to the contrary, DeGeneres indicated she is very assured about her feelings for her life partner Anne Heche.

"No one knows what we have together, no one," DeGeneres told TV Guide. She has "learned the difference between love and being in love. I always used to be so envious of married people. Now this is it for me, for both of us, forever... If Anne goes, I want to go, that's how strongly I feel.”

DeGeneres talked about she and Heche having a baby saying, "For a long time, I wanted a baby, but right now, I'm too selfish. I just can't."

However, she did acknowledge that Heche has been pushing to bear a child for the couple. "Right now, the jury is still out on my career," DeGeneres concluded. "Let's see what I can accomplish, which is getting over stereotypes. I still think in 30 years we'll be dealing with homophobia, and it would be nice to have Ellen on Nick at Night along with Mary Tyler Moore, someone that gay kids could identify with. I have a tendency to diminish what I do for a living, but I also know I'm going to leave here, and I won't be somebody who just had a sitcom but someone who helped change people's minds.”

Meanwhile, DeGeneres' mom Betty was named the new spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project. In doing so, Betty DeGeneres becomes the first heterosexual so honored, joining the ranks of Chastity Bono, Amanda Bearse and Candace Gingrich.

And if the Ellen DeGeneres story isn't enough, Andy Dick; the actor who plays Matthew, a character everyone assumes is gay on the new NBC sitcom News Radio; comes out as bisexual in the same, October 11 edition of TV Guide.

In the article, Dick says many people automatically assume he is gay.

"I act gay, I look gay, I move gay. There are times when I'm playing Matthew I know I'm doing my mom.'

""

He said that for many years his friends tried to make him move and talk more like a stereotypical straight person but finally he said, "The hell with it. I'm not going to cover up to please other people. And, really, they're not that far off. I mean I have been with men. I like sex. I like beautiful people, men and women. And I'm not ashamed of it. Besides, a lot of women love that because they like to see a man in touch with his feminine side-to be able to be with men and not be embarrassed about it."

By the way, Dick still lives with his ex-wife and children upstairs from his ex-girlfriend and the child they recently had.

Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless, currently starring as Rizzo in the Broadway production of Grease, relaxed at the Meow Mix, a lesbian bar in Manhattan that holds Xena costume parties when the show airs. Xena has been renewed through the year 2000.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual Catholics were the focus of two major, multi-page articles in the September 19 edition of the very gayfriendly and gay-supportive Catholic newspaper, the National Catholic Reporter.

One article reports on how a number of Catholic parents have united to support their children who have come out to them. The other focuses on the conflict between current church teachings and the reality of what it means to be gay, a conflict which is finally being understood by those who minister to our community.

Another article in the September 19 National Catholic Reporter reports on the revisions to the final, Latin version of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church and they are not so good for gay Catholics.

In the article, the infamous and ultra-conservative head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said that the revisions dealing with homosexuality were made after objections were raised about the original text.

According to the article, the original text read, "The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible." (The Italian-language version even went so far as to say homosexuality was 'innate.') "They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial." The new version reads: "The number of men and women who have deep-seated homo-

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.®

See me for car, home, life

and health insurance.

sexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, intrinsically disordered, is a trial for most of them."

About the changes Ratzinger said, “One objection was that we made people think homosexual tendency was innate, that it was already present at the moment of birth or conception. Many competent experts said this has not been proven."

Ratzinger went on to say that the catechism did not presume to know the origin of homosexuality and that "we have left room for all the hypotheses... whether it is innate or developed under certain circumstances."

All in all, the Catholic church and many other denominations should be commended and supported for trying to be more inclusive and supportive of our community. One thing is missing, however, from all of the messages of inclusiveness-the great spiritual joy and peace we experience when we truly come to terms with our sexuality, our belief in God and how we came to be.

Janet Jackson tackles AIDS, domestic abuse and prejudice, including homophobia, on her new CD Velvet Rope. The song "Together Again" is about people who have died from AIDS ascending to heaven, while "Free Xone"

attacks homophobia. Jackson sings: "Boy meets boy/Boy loses boy/Boy gets cute boy back/Girl meets girl/Girl loses girl/Girl gets cute girl back.”

"I'm just tired of it," Jackson told USA Today about homophobia. "I have friends who are having a difficult time coming out. They're playing different characters with different people and not being themselves."

In a remake of Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night," Jackson retains his original lyrics, singing, "Tonight's the night/It's gonna be all right/'Cause I love you girl."

One reviewer wondered if Jackson was using the song to come out herself. Hmmm! Meanwhile, Velvet Rope has been banned by Singapore's Controller of Undesirable Publications because it deals with homosexuality and domestic abuse. (Singapore also bans chewing gum, and routinely flogs people found guilty of misdemeanors.)

John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7 pm. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contributed to this column.

HOME INSPECTION

BUYING OR SELLING CALL 1-800-653-1848

J.M. ENTERPRISES, PROPERTIES

i & Dry In

FOOD

Live Jazz on Fridays

& Saturdays

Full Menu, Beer,

Wine, Liquors

2207 W. 11th Street

Tremont • 216/621-6166

Have the Gay People's Chronicle Sent Right to Your Mailbox!

Subscriptions are only $13 for half a year, 13 issues or $30 for a full year, 25 issues.

If you'd like to receive the Chronicle first class mail (faster service), the price is $21.50 for half-year or $42.50 for a full year.

STATE FARM

Auto

Jean M. Jones

(216) 864-8866

1653 Merriman Road, Suite 108

INSURANCE

Akron, Ohio 44313

State Farm Insurance Companieso Home Offices: Bloomington, Illinois

Enclosed is my check or money order for $

Name

Chron

for

Issues