August 20, 1999

on the airoff the press

Conservative media critic sees the light on marriage

by John Graves

Media critic Michael Medved, whose views are conservative and often homophobic, seems to understand very well the reason why government recognition of same sex marriage and committed relationships are so important to the lesbigay community.

In an August 11 USA Today column protesting the deletion of marital status from the 2000 census short form, Medved said, “Nearly all Americans accept the idea that it makes sense for the government and the legal system to treat people differently after they marry. This personal commitment involves public consequences concerning taxes, property division, personal estate and many other

areas.

"That's why so many leaders of the gay community plead for society to sanction same-sex marriage," Medved continued. "They acknowledge that official recognition of this institution is appropriate and important, and want that recognition extended to homosexual unions. Gay activists care profoundly about the issue not because they dismiss the importance of marriage, but because they understand and endorse-the overwhelming importance of such social formalities."

Internet reaches deep into closets

USA Today reporter Greg Farrell wrote a very nice series of articles on how the Internet has allowed advertisers to reach out to classes of people, such as African-Americans, Hispanics and gays, that are ordinarily hard to reach through ads in mainstream media.

They appeared in the business section of the paper's August 6 issue. Two of the side articles discuss tapping into the AfricanAmerican and Hispanic communities, but

the main article focused on the lesbigay community and the success of lesbigay web sites such as Planet Out, which the article describes as “an affinity portal that serves up an entire menu of information aimed at the gay market."

The article points out how hard it is for advertisers to reach the lesbigay market, especially those who are still in the closet or have no access to lesbigay publications.

According to Farrell's story, responses to a recent poll by Greenfield Online indicate that as much as 28% of our community nationwide has no ready access to lesbigay publications.

"This is the first time that a closeted person can participate fully in the community," Planet Out's CEO Megan Smith told Farrell.

Gay.com's advertising vice president Lou Fabrizio added, "On the Internet, you can be as out as you want to be."

Farrell notes that, although Web sites such

The article described the diverse clientele of the bars and the mostly non-responsive attitude of the Cleveland police to the attacks, which occurred this past June. It detailed the security measures or lack of them taken by the bar owners, and the controversial decision of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center to issue a public warning about the area.

My only real problem with the article was its title on the paper's cover, “Trouble in Poof Paradise." This is something that might be considered "cute" in some gay publications, such as the ubiquitous bar magazines, but in a non-gay paper it only buys into the stereotypes held by many straight readers. Although the article was comprehensive and even-handed, maybe Free Times editors could use a little more "care" when trying to be "cute" the next time they want a catchy title for such a serious issue.

as Planet Out and Gay.com are attracting Hey, ever heard of bisexuality?

major corporate clients, some advertisers are still leery of sites with links to adult material.

Jeffery Newman, president of the Gay Financial News and its gfn.com web site, told Farrell, "That's the biggest trouble for most advertisers. I wouldn't want to get it [adult content links] while reading the Wall Street Journal, so why would I want to see that material while I'm on GFN?"

Both Planet Out and Gay.com told Farrell their portals do not link to adult material.

Trouble in 'poof' headline

Frank Green wrote an extensive feature for the August 11 issue of the Cleveland alternative weekly Free Times on a spate of gay bashings in the Detroit Avenue/West Boulevard area near the Cage and Rockies, two of Cleveland's 20 lesbigay bars.

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Well, enough of the serious stuff, it's time to dish! Actress Kristin Davis; who plays Charlotte, an art dealer on the HBO series Sex and the City, echoed Camryn Mannheim when she talked about her sexual orientation on a guest appearance on NBC's Conan O'Brien Show August 6.

I came in on the middle of the conversation when Davis was going on about how she had always lived in the lesbian community and that all her friends were lesbians, and that she had done her best to be a lesbian.

Davis said, that although she (like The Practice's Mannheim) had tried very hard to be a lesbian, she found out she was really straight. She started to describe a lesbian relationship she had been in when she was younger, but cut it off saying she was getting a look from fellow guest Matthew Broderick that told her

Heeeey...

to behave herself. (Matthew, Matthew-too close to home?) Davis went on to say the problem was that, try as she might, she couldn't find a man she found attractive.

Haven't Davis, Mannheim or KoreanAmerican comic Margaret Cho, who made similar statements recently, ever heard of the "B" word: bisexual? This "I tried to be gay" routine must be the new catch phrase for celebrities just coming out. A few years ago these same people might have said, “Oh, I just call myself 'omnisexual'."

It doesn't really matter what you want to call yourself, just realize that recognizing same-sex attraction in yourself means, as Canadian lesbian comic Elvira Kurt might say, “You are part of the lesbigay community get used to it.

The actress most straight women want

Openly bisexual actress Angelina Jolie appears on the cover and is the subject of a multi-page, feature interview heading up the August 19 "Hot List '99" issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

According to the article, an interviewer once remarked to Jolie that she "was the actress most straight women want to have sex with," to which Jolie replied that she was the actress most likely to have sex with them!

"The Gay Guy"—all of them-made the magazine's list as the "Hot TV Char-

acter.

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, and at http://radio.cwru.edu. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contributed to this column.

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