October 4, 2002 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

on the airoff the press

Only 7 lesbian and gay TV roles this year, but more to come

by John Graves

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation reports that the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters appearing this fall on primetime network television has declined by almost two-thirds compared to the 2001-02 television season.

According to GLAAD, 20 LGBT characters regularly appeared on network television last year. This year, there are only seven lesbian and gay characters in the fall 2002 primetime season, all of whom are white, and no bisexual or transgender characters.

Part of the loss is due to the cancellation of eleven shows from last year that featured lesbigay and transgender characters.

In a statement, GLAAD entertainment media director Scott Seomin said, “The diversity of the gay community cannot be conveyed through seven characters, especially when all of those characters are white. This is not merely about the decreasing number of gay and lesbian characters on TV. It is about the total lack of people of color, bisexual and transgender portrayals on network television."

New gay characters are coming

Things may brighten up as the season progresses though. Reuters correspondent Steve Gorman reports gay actor Nathan Lane will play a gay actor elected to Congress in the mid-season replacement show Charlie Lawrence. Also, Fox will introduce in midseason Oliver Beene, a series about an 11year-old boy who is revealed in flash-forward scenes to be gay, though he doesn't know it yet.

Meanwhile, check out the new edition of CBS' reality game show The Amazing Race, where the teams of contestants include a conservative father (a Southern Baptist preacher) traveling with his gay son, a straight woman and her gay best friend and two brothers, one of whom is gay.

Weaver returns to 'ER'

One of the LGBT characters that is returning this fall is ER's Dr. Kerry Weaver who finally came out to her colleagues about her lover, firefighter Sandy Lopez (Lisa Vidal), at the end of last season. Actress Laura Innes, who plays Weaver, talks about her role in a cover feature interview in the October 1 issue of The Advocate.

Innes, who says her character will explore the idea of motherhood this season, told writer Michele Kort, "I've really examined— because now I know more about the producing end-how much was at stake when John Wells and the other producers of ER decided to pursue this storyline, and how much was at stake for NBC. ER is a huge moneymaking show, and for them to do this is a really big deal.

"It's great that there are gay and lesbian characters on shows like Six Feet Under and Queer as Folk," Innes continued, "but there's nothing that compares to this battleship that is ER in terms of the mainstream nature of it, the economic tentacles of it, how many people it reaches."

Innes told Kort lesbian ER writer Dee Johnson is one of the reasons the lesbian storyline has been so authentic. “She obviously is a big voice in the writers' meetings in terms of the sort of sequence that the character went through and experiences the character has had."

WWE non-wedding was an insult

World Wrestling Entertainment once again insulted the LGBT community when it loudly ballyhooed a gay wedding between former tag team wrestling champions Chuck (played by Chuck Palumbo) and Billy (played by Monty Sopp) and then called it off at the last minute.

GLAAD had given its blessing to the

staged wedding, because as spokesman Scott

Seomin said, "Billy and Chuck were a welcomed departure from the stereotypical, often-victimized gay wrestlers of the past."

On the September 12 show, Billy and

Chuck announced that they weren't getting married, that they are both really straight, and that the whole storyline was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

As Philadelphia Daily News columnist Debbie Woodell described it, "The wedding ended (predictably) with a brawl involving wrestlers on a rival WWE show that to many looked like a gay bashing."

"It's bad enough that I felt used by the WWE and wasted a couple of hours of videotape," Woodell wrote, "What's worse is how sick to my stomach I felt at hearing the boos and catcalls raining down from the crowd as the 'wedding' unfolded. I can only imagine what any gay man or lesbian in the crowd at the Target Center in Minneapolis was feeling."

The cancellation drew an angry response from GLAAD's Seomin, who said, "The WWE lied to us two months ago when they promised that Billy and Chuck would come out and wed on the air."

"In fact," Seomin said, "I was told the day after the show was taped in Minneapolis that the wedding took place and all was well." Two hosts drop out of awards show

Cristina Saralegui, host of the Spanishlanguage network Univision's El Show de

John Quiñones

Cristina, and John Quiñones, a correspondent for ABC's 20/20, dropped out of this year's the His100 panic Media

awards ceremony after they found out that one of the honorees led the effort to repeal Miami's gay and lesbian civil rights ordi-

nance.

The awards ceremony, honoring reporters, publishers and broadcast leaders of the Hispanic community for their work in Spanish-language media in the United States, was held in Miami on Sept. 20.

Eladio José Armesto, publisher of El Nuevo Patria, was one of the leaders of Take Back Miami-Dade, a Christian Coalition-affiliated group that unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the Miami ordinance earlier this month.

According to Fidel Ortega of 365Gay.com, El Nuevo Patria, “continuously printed statements about the gay and lesbian community that most members of Miami's GLBT community called 'inflammatory.''

One article printed in the paper said, "Homosexualists aren't interested in adults. They seek to attract boys and youths," while another story ran under the headline “Privileges for Perverts?"

Saralegui, who was actively involved in fighting to retain Miami's gay rights ordinance and who is "the most popular star on Hispanic television," said, "To honor Armesto, who has used his media experience and skills to defame and oppress others, is a slap in the face to the Miami community. He's equated gays and lesbians with child molesters and shown he has no interest in the core tenets of journalism: fairness and accuracy."

Quiñones agreed to emcee the event after Saralegui withdrew but later backed out, telling event organizer Chris Day that he was not told why Saralegui canceled.

In his letter to Day, Quiqones said, “I've also spent the last 24 hours reading some of the virulent anti-gay comments attributed to him in print-and in his own newspaper. Mr.

Armesto certainly reserves his right to express his opinions. But, I too, want to express my own right not to be a part of any event that will pay tribute to anyone associated with such anti-gay, and by obvious extension,. anti-American views."

Affleck, Lauper in P-FLAG ads

Chicago Sun Times columnist Bill Zwecker reports actor Ben Affleck will appear alongside his gay male cousin in a

commercial for Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. According to Zwecker, Affleck's aunt persuaded him to join the PFLAG ad campaign, which will also feature Cyndi Lauper in an upcoming ad with her lesbian sister.

Gay-straight evolution

Capitalizing on the popularity of Big Brother, Chicago's Fox network station WFLD has come up with a really gayinclusive version of the reality-game show for the November sweeps.

The show, Experiment: Gay and Straight, had five gay men and women and five straight men and women live together for a week while cameras filmed their interactions.

"By the end of the week," executive producer Mark Saxenmeyer told USA Today, "they leave emotionally exhausted, and there is evolution."

One striking out, but one on base

Actor Ben Affleck and actor-director Betty Thomas (Hill Street Blues and The Brady Bunch Movie) are trying to get financial

backing from Hollywood to adapt The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story, Peter Lefcourt's 1992 novel about a gay major league baseball player, to the silver screen.

"Ben really wants to do it and I really want to do it," Thomas told Entertainment Weekly. But, she added, "the bottom line is no studio wants to give us the money. I guess they think there's no audience."

Meanwhile, Take Me Out, Richard Greenberg's new play about the coming-out of a gay baseball player, opened off-Broadway September 5 at New York's Public Theater.

Pats to the PD

Missed this one while I was on vacation, but belated kudos to Cleveland Plain Dealer reporters Lila J. Mills and Kera Ritter for their excellent September 8 article on life in Gayer Cleveland. The article showed readers how we live quietly and comfortably with our partners all over northeast Ohio, not just in small, lesbigay enclaves. It talked about our growing political clout, looked at our reticence to get involved in political activism and showed how we are still hampered by racism in our community--just like the rest of northeast Ohio.

I understand, after talking with the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center's Tim Marshall, that many more people were interviewed for the story. It's too bad it was not expanded into one of the many series the Plain Dealer does so well.

Congrats to two Djs

And congratulations to Grid/Orbit co-owner Jerry Szoka, my former Gaywaves colleague who fought the FCC over licensing for lowpower radio stations, for being named “Best Club DJ" and Andria Michaels (Pump and Metropolis) for being named "Best Transsexual DJ" in Scene magazine's September 25, special "Best of Cleveland" edition.

John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7:30 pm, and at www.wruw.org. See what's coming on TV in the Couch Potato Report, under "Entertainment" at www.lgcsc.org. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contribute to this column.

Bill Soeder Landscaping

Your satisfaction is our reputation

Call now for a 10% Discount!

$1,000 minimum. Valid thru 12/31/02

Design & Installation Decks & Brick Patios Retaining Walls Ponds & Waterfalls

29579 Center Ridge Road Westlake, Ohio 44145 0-871-90 Free Estimates

HIV/AIDS. The mad resistance to gay and lesbian human rights. Depression, addiction, dependency...

Our fight against these forces proves our RESILIENCE. Admitting we can't do it all alone proves our COURAGE.

Seven effective therapists to guide your journey of discovery with insight and heart.

BEGIN WITH OUR GIFT OF INSPIRATION CALL FOR A FREE PHONE CONSULTATION

(614) 445-8277

918 South Front St. Columbus, Ohio 43206 Fax/TTY: (614) 445-8283

A Center for

firmations: Psychotherapy

Howard Fradkin, Ph.D.

and Growth