October 24, 2003 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

11

on the

the airoff the press

A Boston Herald sportswriter comes out to his readers

by John Graves

Longtime Boston Herald sports columnist and general assignment sports reporter Ed Gray celebrated National Coming Out Day by coming out of the closet himself in his October 7 column

"I'm out because I no longer, in good conscience, choose to ignore the unabashed homophobia that is so cavalierly tolerated within the world of sports," Gray wrote.

would accept the storyline.

"At the end of the day, you want people to watch it. If they don't, you don't have a show next year. Knowing that, and knowing it could be a problem, the network opted to tackle the subject anyway. I give a lot of credit to Mark Shapiro [ESPN's vice president of production and programming], because he said 'Go ahead,' knowing that reactions could be mixed."

In a telephone interview later that day, Degrassi's greener on the other side

Gray told San Francisco Chronicle correspondent Dave Ford, "The sports world is going nowhere as far as this issue, and it's amazing-it truly is like the gay community is the last minority that is fair game to bigotry and prejudice. It's just gotten to a point where I just couldn't be quiet about it any more and I'm not a person who likes to draw attention to himself."

Ford recalled the time San Francisco 49er Garrison Hearst last year told a Fresno Bee reporter, "I don't want any faggots on my team," and noted that homophobia also exits in a more subtle form, "when teams and leagues allow half-hearted player apologies for such gaffes to substitute for true ethical change."

Reacting to the column, Boston Herald editor Andrew F. Costello said, "I thought it was courageous of Ed to talk about that issue, especially when it involves him personally," adding, "I hope this opens the door for others to talk about this."

Robert Lipsyte, a former full-time sportswriter and a contributor on culture, city issues and sports to The New York Times, told Ford that, as far as he knows, Gray's coming out is a first among sportswriters. He added that players' homophobia can often be traced to coaches of boys and young men who "use shame and humiliation to get short-term gains, and keep [players] in line by calling them girl, faggot, sissy."

Gray said he sees that situation changing, saying, "I think somebody can come out on a major team and survive," but noted, "No one's ever tried."

What is it with New Hampshire?

On the new CBS series Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire, Hank, Garrett and Waylon got a shock when their minister and lifelong friend told them he was gay and wanted them to back him up when he comes out to the whole congregation.

The brothers argued and even fought with each other and their families as they wrestled with all of the homophobia they had learned while growing up. Fortunately, their wives and children called them on their bigotry and, in an emotional scene in church, stood up at their friend and minister's side when he did come out and rallied the congregation behind him.

Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire airs Wednesdays at 10 pm. Football pro outed in ESPN series

David Petronijevic returns as Thad Guerwitcz, a soon-to-be-outed gay pro football player, on ESPN's Playmakers. Last year he played a macho soldier in Showtime's Soldier's Girl, a cable film based on the gaybashing murder of Pfc. Barry Winchell.

The first dramatic series ever attempted by the all-sports network bills itself as a gritty look at the off-the-field lives of a fictional pro football team.

Petronijevic told Michael Rowe of the Advocate that he was surprised when his character, originally a devout Christian, was rewritten with the gay storyline.

When the producers approached Petronijevic about the change, "I was skeptical. I didn't know if I had enough faith in my own abilities as an actor to do it justice."

"I wanted to play a guy who wasn't stereotypical," Petronijevic explained, “I didn't want it to be, 'He's gay, and he plays football.' I wanted to play a guy who is a football player and who is gay.”

Executive producer Orly Anderson said she never had any doubts about Petronijevic's ability to handle the role.

:

Anderson gave her opinion on whether ESPN's mainly straight, male demographic

The high school dramatic series Degrassi: The Next Generation will introduce a gay character when 10th grader Marco Del Rossi, played by actor Adamo Ruggiero, breaks off his relationship with his "girlfriend" and comes out of the closet this season.

Marco's coming out will be a "one step forward, two steps back" affair, executive producer Linda Schuyler told The Advocate, adding, "There are no simple through lines for the kids."

Openly gay show writer Aaron Martin said that Ruggiero turned down his offer to meet and talk with some of the other lesbian and gay staff members but said the cast is "way more comfortable than their peers" dealing with gay issues and says he found them in a positive discussion of gay rights during a read-through of the script.

Schuyler said that the level of physicality of the storyline will be "developing," noting, "If teenagers are doing it, we do it in the show."

DeGrassi: The Next Generation airs on cable's Noggin/The N Channel at various times during the week.

Racing couple reaches the finish line

Reichen Lehmkuhl and Chip Arndt, the gay married couple who won on the Amazing Race 4 a few weeks ago, have split up but remain good friends, according to a source at CBS.

Us Weekly says that, although Chip is laying low, Reichen, who appeared as a waiter on a three-day guest stint on the CBS soap The Young and the Restless, will be "hitting the singles circuit."

The magazine also reports that James Getzlaff has split with Wes Culwell, the eligible male he picked as his love match on Bravo's gay dating show Boy Meets Boy last month. Unfortunately, the New Zealand vacation they won is not until March, which is late summer Down Under.

More gay TV

Besides the shows listed here in previous weeks, the Advocate's September 30 Fall Television Preview has a number of other LGBT offerings.

The seventh season of the cult cartoon show South Park opened October 22 to find Cartman, Kenny, Stan and Kyle competing to see "who can be the gayest."

Tom Hollander and Samuel West portray Guy Burgess and Anthony blunt, two gay characters on Cambridge Spies, BBC America's new dramatic series about four Englishmen who betrayed their country during the Cold War, premiering Saturday, October 25 at 10 pm.

Over on HBO, look for gay actor John Fleck as Gecko, the lizard man on Carnivale, a dramatic series about the performers in a carnival in the Depression-era Dustbowl airing Sundays at 9 pm.

A lesbian couple and a gay male couple are featured in upcoming episodes of Mix it Up, a new home makeover show "where. stylistically different couples and housemates learn to blend their lives," now airing on cable's WE, the Women's Entertainment Channel, Wednesdays at 8 pm.

Coming up this next week, openly gay author and director Clive Barker will host a collection of short horror films to be shown at various times during American Movie Classics' October 26-31 MonsterFest, culminating with a half-hour special at 10 pm on Halloween night.

Later on this year, look for HBO's cable adaptation of gay playwright Tony Kushner's epic Angels in America, set to debut in December, and Tony-winning actress Kate Finnerman (Noises Off") as the "overachiev-

ing lesbian sister" of Jaye Taylor (Caroline Dhavernas), a young woman who hears the voices of inanimate animal figurines who motivate her to help people in Wonderfalls, a drama/comedy series tentatively scheduled to debut on Fox sometime in January.

Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me) and Todd Holland (Malcolm in the Middle) are the openly gay creators of Wonderfalls.

The L Word, the much-anticipated lesbian drama set in West Hollywood co-starring Jennifer Beals, Leisha Hailey, Laurel Hamilton and Pam Grier also debuts in January on Showtime.

Ellen repeats

Good news for those of us who have to work when Ellen's new talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, airs weekdays at 4 pm. Cable's Oxygen channel now re-airs the shows the following week at 11 pm weeknights while Lifetime is now airing repeat episodes of the original Ellen Sundays at 1 and 1:30 am.

Lena speaks

Following up on their selection of Bianca and Lena as "Daytime's Hottest Couple," Soap Opera Weekly gave Olga Sosnovska (Lena) a full page to answer reader's questions.

Asked what she would do if offered the chance to write her storyline, Sosnovska wrote, "I would love for Bianca and Lena to be together. Not necessarily without obstacles, but for us to have a chance at having a relationship, which has been stalled for so long now it seems it's never going to happen. I would love for there to be a storyline about the two of us dealing with her pregnancy. That would be fascinating, to see two women deal with these issues and maybe set up a family."

Is the limited intimacy between Bianca and Lena frustrating? "Yes, definitely," Sosnovska wrote. "We are both very aware of it and we laugh at it—yet again, we are kissing each other's hands or playing with each other's earlobes. If it was a straight storyline, it would be very different. The more contrived it becomes, the harder it is to make it believable, but we do our best."

Soap Opera Weekly is also offering readers a chance to win an autographed copy of the 22x36-inch full-color poster of Bianca and Lena in a loving embrace in the magazine's Lianca Poster Sweepstakes. Fans can fill out and mail the entry form at soapoperaweekly.com/inweekly. Entries must be submitted by October 27.

Trumping homophobia

A parent wrote in to Globe advice columnist Ivana Trump about his 7-year-old son's best friend. It seems the other boy's two gay fathers are very affectionate to each other, and the reader was concerned that it might not be healthy for his son to see.

Ivana wrote back, "This situation is a sign of our times and will no doubt become more common as gay couples increasingly become parents. You need to answer your son in an age-appropriate manner, explaining that some kids have 'daddies and daddies' instead of 'mommies and daddies.' I think the world would be a better place if we judged other people less harshly and tolerated those who are different more openly. Children should be taught from an early age that love manifests itself in many different ways."

John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Saturdays at 9 am, and at www.wruw.org.

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