November 21, 2003 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 11

on the airoff the press

Several TV shows explore homophobia, old and new

by John Graves

Homophobia has been the topic of a number of TV shows this season.

Boston Public aired a show a few weeks ago about a young teen who clung to a teacher and his family because he was living on the street because his father had beaten him for being gay. Lifetime's Strong Medicine had a doctor challenging the police who she believed were trying to implicate a fellow officer, the doctor's lesbian neighbor, in the death of the woman's lover who had really died of natural causes.

Most notable were the new CBS crime drama Cold Case, which reopened an investigation into the murder of a college baseball player 40 years ago, and NBC's Law & Order: SVU, which aired a remarkable show that examined the devastating effect of homophobia on several levels.

The SVU case involved a gay man who was murdered by what police thought were followers of an extreme religious group patterned after the Rev. Fred Phelps, the notorious anti-gay picketer from Topeka, Kansas.

It turns out however, that the culprit was a psychologist who uses the largely discredited "reparative therapy" to try to change gay people's sexual orientation. The victim was his son's lover. The son, who thought his father didn't know he was gay, testified that his father had only tried to protect him from being "sexually assaulted" when he found the pair in bed.

That is, until the son found out that his father had known he was gay since he was in high school. In the end, the son, who had internalized his own homophobia and tried to be straight for his father all his life, realized he had been living a lie for no reason. He also saw hat his father had killed the man he loved simply to keep his "gay cure" theories from being exposed as the lies they really are.

Reaction was swift from homophobic radio broadcaster James Dobson's Focus on the Family organization which touts "reparative therapy." In a statement released November 12, the day after the show aired, Focus on the Family accused the network of putting forth "misinformed homosexual activist rhetoric," and said that it slandered the effectiveness of "reparative therapy," "despite current research proving that sexual orientation can be changed."

The bad old days

The November 16 episode of Cold Case used black-and-white flashbacks to recreate the pre-Stonewall world of mob-controlled gay bars, police raids, shakedowns and casual disgust toward homosexuals that surround the 1964 murder of a college baseball player.

The ballplayer's mother comes to the present-day Philadelphia police to ask that the case be reopened. As witnesses are found and interviewed, we also see them 40 years ago: the still unrepentant leader of a gaybashing gang, the sorrowful cop who watched the beating but did nothing.

There is also Tinkerbelle, a tiara-wearing African-American drag queen whom police had never bothered to take a statement from. When the cold-case detectives visit the elderly man now, his first words are, "It took you long enough."

We also see the victim's lover, a young law student. The detectives instantly recognize his name since he is now a prominent judge and still closeted. At first he refuses to talk about the murder, but he ultimately visits the victim's mother who is dying in a hospital.

"What really sets the episode apart is its poignancy and its palpable sense of loss," said USA Today TV critic Robert Bianco. "It's enough to make you hope that Cold Case is now on its way to fulfilling the promise of its pilot. And that times really have changed as much as the episode would have you believe. Wouldn't that be fabulous?"

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Innes honored for ER role

Actress Laura Innes was honored by Power Up, a trade organization of lesbians in the entertainment industry, on November 2. She was awarded this year's Artistry Award for her portrayal of lesbian Dr. Kerry Weaver on the long-running NBC medical drama ER.

Speaking of her character during her acceptance speech, Innes told the audience, "I hope her inclusion in prime time helps break down barriers of prejudice and injustice onscreen and off."

Also honored by Power Up were cable's Bravo network and two-time Emmy winner Judith Light for her portrayal of the mother who helped her son Ryan White fight against AIDS discrimination in his school, according to USA Today. Their advocacy for AIDS causes eventually led Congress to establish the Ryan White AIDS fund in his honor. McKellen would return to X-Men

Speaking at the British Independent Film awards, gay British actor Sir Ian McKellen told the audience he would gladly return as Magneto in the proposed X-men sequel, XMen 3. He sees the story of young mutants finding refuge from an unwelcoming world as a symbol of hope for young gays.

"X-Men and its story is about mutants, about people who feel disaffected with society, and whom society is hard on, appeals most to young blacks, young Jews and young gays," McKellen told the audience, according to Gay.com. "That's why I did the movie and that's why I intend to do the third movie."

Production of the third X-Men movie is in doubt, as there have been reports that McKellen and his X-Men 2 costars have had a falling out with openly gay director Bryan Singer.

Queer Eye turnabout

The producers of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy are planning a one-shot spin off episode in which a team of straight men make over a gay man, titled Straight Eye for the Queer Guy.

The one-hour special will feature a team of five straight men who will tutor one gay man on what E! Online's Lia Haberman calls "testosterone-driven 'culture'." Although the five straight culture mavens have not been cast, Haberman thinks some of the show's segments could be titled, "Power Tools 101," "NFL Basics," and "Decorating Your Garage," with special tutoring in twominute hair styling and sports-event etiquette.

It is unclear if Queer Eye stars Carson Kressley, Jai Rodriguez, Kyan Douglas, Ted Allen and Thom Filicia will appear on the special Straight Eye episode. A network spokesperson said Straight Eye should air some time next year.

Meanwhile, Bravo has announced plans

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to air a Christmas episode of Queer Eye on December 16,. It will include holidaythemed "hip tips," a brand new Fab Five loft designed and decorated by design guy Filicia, plus surprise visits to check up on the straight guys made over during Queer Eye's first season.

Both the Christmas and Straight Eye specials are part of the 40 episodes NBC ordered after the first season of Queer Eye garnered record ratings for Bravo.

Comedy Central, which poked fun at Queer Eye and the whole "metrosexual" phenomenon in the season opener of South Park, are planning Straight Plan for the Gay Man, their own three-episode version of a Queer Eye reverse set to air February 17.

According to Haberman, Comedy Central's straight guys, the "Flab Four," will tutor their gay pupils on some of the finer points of heterosexuality, including how to dress in uglier clothes, the joys of a bare kitchen and how to develop a healthy dose of false egotism to cover for all personal failings.

Only the lawyers won

The legal battle between Rosie O'Donnell and her former magazine publishers Gruner and Jahr ended in a draw when New York judge Ira Gammerman issued a temporary ruling November 12 that neither side had proved their case.

"It seems to me... we're just dealing with bragging rights here, who wins and who loses," said Gammerman in his ruling.

Although neither side won, O'Donnell could still ask the court to order Gruner and Jahr to pay her legal fees, which O'Donnell told reporters amounted to about $8 million. The publisher had sued O'Donnell for $100 million after she walked out on Rosie magazine following a dispute over who was in control of the publication. O'Donnell countersued for $125 million claiming the publisher violated its contract with her by taking control away from her.

'Don't ask' on 60 Minutes

On CBS' 60 Minutes last Sunday, Morley Safer examined the case of U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Loomis, a decorated Vietnam veteran who was discharged from the Army in 1977 just eight days before he would have been eligible to retire and receive his pension after the Army found out he was gay.

Loomis didn't violate regulations by declaring his sexual orientation. He told Safer the Army found out when local authorities, investigating the torching of his home by an arsonist, found a sexually explicit tape of Loomis and other men having sex. They turned it over to the Army even though the tape had no bearing on the arson investigation.

Loomis, who won two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart in Vietnam, told Safer the

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tapes, "had nothing to do with the performance of any job that I did... They were private, consensual...no different than heterosexual soldiers frequently make in their own relationships."

The Army ruled that the videotape was evidence of "conduct unbecoming" and, combined with evidence of a relationship Loomis had with a younger enlisted man, formed the basis for his discharge.

"It is a matter of conduct which showed these grave misjudgments along the way and that is eventually what got Lt. Col. Loomis eliminated from the service," a former Army attorney, retired Col. John Smith, told Safer.

However, retired Adm. John Hutson, the former Judge Advocate General of the Navy, disagrees and told Safer it is time to allow gay people to serve openly in the U.S. military.

Hutson, the highest ranking person in military circles to publicly call for an end to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, told Safer, "You can be openly gay right now and serve with the FBI, the DEA, Secret Service. You can serve in the police departments and the fire departments of major cities... in the military of Great Britain, Israel, Australia, Canada, France, Germany. We've matured as a society. . . We can change and, if you can change, then I think we have the moral imperative that we must change."

Loomis is suing the federal government, contending that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and its sodomy statute are unconstitutional based on the right to pri-

vacy.

In memory of Judy Constant

Finally, I write this column with a heavy heart this week as I just learned of the death of my good friend Judy Constant. She was a devoted lesbian mom and grandmother and outspoken advocate for our rights and the welfare of the poor and marginalized.

Judy was the first person ever to say, "You're gay, aren't you?" when I first met her. She was the staff nurse at the Cleveland Free Clinic where I was a long-time mental health program intake worker. I will always treasure the long conversations we had discussing social, political and gay issues and what it was like when we were young and coming to terms with our own sexuality.

It was Constant who turned me on to Judy Grahn's Another Mother Tongue, a wonderful book I heartily recommend to all who are just coming out of the closet.

So long, Judy. This town and our community will be quite a bit poorer without you. ✔

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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