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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE PRIDE GUIDE 1998

TV show's Pride special is as American as apple pie

by John Catania

For its second annual “American as Apple Pie" episode, In the Life, the national gay and lesbian newsmagazine series, examines gay participation in some of the most traditional institutions in American Society: the military, marriage, politics, the church and the family. It is in these areas that gay people across the country are struggling for a piece of the most sacredly guarded portion of the American pie. To illustrate this point In the Life talks to Virginia Apuzzo, White House assistant to President Clinton; Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, long term partners who created the multimedia company World of Wonder; Reverends Jimmy Creech and Cecil Williams, two dynamic religious leaders who are challenging old notions by welcoming gays and lesbians into their churches; and Gair Bridges and Ron Travis, Iowa's foster parents of the year.

The bi-monthly newsmagazine series chronicles the history and contemporary experience of the lesbian and gay community, and airs on over 100 public television stations nationwide. A complete list can be found on the internet at http:www.inthelife.org.

Seeking inclusion

The lead story examines how over the past two decades everyday gay and lesbian citizens have challenged state and federal laws to fight for their civil rights. More recently they have fought for even greater inclusion with battles surrounding America's most sacred institutions-marriage, the military, parental rights, even the Boy Scouts. To bring perspective on these intense debates, In the Life interviews: Michelle Benecke of the Service Members Legal Defense Network; Kerry Lobel, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Evan

The Rev. Cecil Williams preaches to the diverse Glide Church in San Francisco.

Wolfson of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Noemi Masliah of the Immigration Rights Task Force for this seg-

ment.

A day in the life

Few careers reflect the changes in America's gay civil rights struggle as clearly as that of Virginia Apuzzo. In 1987 she was arrested for demonstrating in front of the White House. Now she's involved in running it. For 30 years she has been one of the gay and lesbian movement's most visible activists. Now, working in the White House as

DANCIN'

in the streets

Cleveland

SUNDAY, JULY 19,1998

1-10:00 p.m.

Donation $15. at the gate, $10. before day of event. Tickets are available at the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland (216) 621.0766, or may be purchased at bar nights in the upcoming weeks.

Those interested in volunteering, or vendors interested in booth space may contact the AIDS Taskforce for more information.

Please bring one non-perishable food item for donation the day of the event. No bottles, cans or coolers. Proper I.D. is required.

Mall B is located between Lakeside and St. Clair Aves. (just west of the Cleveland Convention Center).

All proceeds benefit the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland. which provides AIDS prevention, education and outreach services.

AIDS

TASKFORCE

assistant to the president for management and administration, she is the highest ranking openly gay offical ever to serve in the federal government.

“I don't think you begin to as an out gay person in government thinking that someday you'll end up in the White House," Apuzzo tells Katherine Linton. This segment shows how Virginia Apuzzo's activist ideas reach President Clinton's ear.

lowa's Foster Parents of the Year

For this story In the Life travelled to rural lowa to visit with Gair Bridges and Ron Travis, two gay men who over the past decade have made their home a safe, loving environment for 18 foster children. They were lowa's 1996 "Foster Parents of the Year" and are further distinguished by being the first gay couple to be honored by any state with this award. Gary, one of their foster children tells In the Life of his first days in their care: "My world was turned upside down. I just didn't know what to think. And then I heard about their (Ron and Gair's) lifestyle. I was kind of afraid, until I finally met them. After a week it was great. I could trust them. I consider them my dads-my two dads."

The selling of gay America

This story profiles longetime business partners and partners in life, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the dynamic gay duo who created World of Wonder, an independent multi-media production company that produces programming for Showtime, HBO, and VHI as well as England's Channel 4 and the BBC. Bailey and Barbato bring to an

international audience a hip, cool, and often queer vision of America in the 1990s, turning gay fringe images such as RuPaul into mainstream phenomena.

"We've always felt that things that people have traditionally dismissed as marginal are in fact potentially mainstream,” Bailey told In the Life.

A tale of two reverends

In this story In the Life examines the efforts of Methodist ministers Rev. Cecil Williams and Rev. Jimmy Creech, both of whom, despite stern reprisals from church hierarchy, openly and eagerly welcome gay and lesbian worshippers into their congregations. Rev. Cecil Williams runs the dynamic and diverse Glide Church in San Francisco, and Rev. Jimmy Creech of Omaha, Nebraska, recently caused a storm in the Methodist Church and was put on trial for performing a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple.

Awards, gay American style

Perhaps no other American tradition is so constant and so public as the proliferation of award ceremonies. This story looks at three awards: the GLAAD Media Awards, given to media by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; GLAMA, the Gay and Lesbian Music Awards; and the Annual Easter Bonnet Competition held by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This segment, hosted by political humorist Kate Clinton, examines how the gay and lesbian community has adapted this awards tradition as a strategy to increase its visibility and to raise funds for vital projects.

Recording lesbian history

Just a few decades ago images of lesbians were virtually non-existent to the greater public. But the 1970s, following on the heels of the 1969 Stonewall riots, were a time when many gay and lesbian American's came of age politically. During those years a photographer named JEB, and a recording company called Olivia Records saw that the awakening of lesbian ideas and identity was the stuff of history. The groundbreaking work of JEB and the women at Olivia Records captured and preserved the spirit of the lives, work, and struggle of lesbians during a time of dramatic change. Without their efforts to record history, many of the images and sounds of that crucial period of the modern gay movement would have been lost forever. This story looks at the work of some important chroniclers of the 1970s lesbian feminist movement.

In the Life's Pride special airs in Dayton on Ch.16/WPTD on Saturday, June 6, at 11 pm; in Cleveland/Akron on Ch. 45/49 (WNEO / WEAO) on Sunday, June 21 at midnight; and in Indianapolis on Ch. 20/ WFYI on Saturday, June 27 at midnight.

John Catania is a producer for In the Life.

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