eptember

on the airoff the press

Catholic paper sees pro-gay response to Vatican move

by John Graves

The National Catholic Reporter has provided extraordinary coverage of the Vatican's censure of Sr. Jeannine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent for their gay-supportive New Ways Ministry, and its prohibition of them from any ministry to the lesbian and gay community. But the gay-affirming response from clergy and lay Catholics has been just as extraordinary.

Besides its own editorial, the Reporter has run several half-page guest editorials strongly criticizing the Vatican's action. The paper

also devoted the entire Letters section of its September 3 issue to the debate. This included almost three full pages of letters from both clergy and lay people expressing outrage at not only the censure of Gramick and Nugent, but also at the church's characterization of lesbians and gays as "objectively disordered."

The letters continued into the September 10 issue which also ran a full-page, gaysupportive display ad by the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pa.

The ad protested the church's use of terms like “intrinsically disordered" to describe us,

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and offered a gay-affirming "Prayer in Honor of Those Whom Jesus Loved" with a large triangle printed in the background. The prayer was written by Sr. Joan Chittister, who has written several gay-supportive guest columns for the Reporter.

Fall season brings new gay characters

The fall TV season is upon us, and there are a few new network offerings with LBGT characters.

ABC's Oh, Grow Up features actor John Ducey as Ford, the youngest of three friends who separates from his wife when he realizes he's gay. Wasteland is a one-hour drama about six twentysomethings right out of college from Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson, with actor Dan Montgomery as Russell, a closeted soap-opera star who is eventually outed by the tabloids. ABC has a third gay character on Then Came You.

Over at the Fox network, the new sitcom Action will feature a closeted and married television executive named Bobby, and another "ambiguous" character. WB's Popular, a new high school drama, will feature a gay Asian-American teenage character.

Will might get a love life

Although there are no new LGBT characters at NBC this season, Will Truman will finally start dating men on the successful Will & Grace sitcom, and there may be a same-sex kiss somewhere down the line.

"If Will doesn't have some semblance of a romantic life in the second season, then the network has failed to realistically deliver the show's premise of a life of a gay man," says Scott Seomin of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Agaist Defamation. "However, I have been told by the producers that GLAAD has nothing to worry about."

Kisses galore on MTV

Meanwhile, while we wait for Will to get that kiss, MTV's new romance series Undressed features not one, but two, intense same-sex kisses.

The kiss was between a lesbian couple and

a gay couple standing on a porch just before they went to their respective quarters after one of the lesbians and one of the gay man got hitched in a "marriage of convenience" for the sake of the gay man's job and family. Mom, love your young effeminate son

Abigail Van Buren, a.k.a. Dear Abby, gave some no-nonsense advice to "Worried in Woodland Hills,” a California mother concerned about her 10-year-old son's development, in her August 29 syndicated advice column.

The woman wrote, "While most boys pore over baseball cards and speak of little girls, Trevor has taken an interest in cooking and dance. He doesn't mix well with other boys, is teased constantly and hates the walk to school. He is effeminate and introspective. I have come to the conclusion that Trevor is a homosexual or rather, will be when he's more developed. My question to you, Abby, is what can I do to make this 'coming out' process easier on my son?"

In her compassionate response, Abby praised "Worried" for her supportive intentions, but told her that Trevor's apparent lack of interest in girls "does not automatically guarantee that he's a budding homosexual."

She went on to suggest, "the most important thing you can do for Trevor is to let him know you love him unconditionally, regardless of his eventual orientation. By all means, talk to him about sexuality, in an age-appropriate way. If your son is being harassed at school, discuss it with the principal. Your son is legally entitled to an education free of harassment."

To thank Van Buren for giving such sensible advice and for tending to the well-being of all her readers contact her at P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, Calif. 90069.

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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