“I Kissed A Girl” Singer Katy Perry Ridicules Transgender Community on Twitter
December 21, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
On December 6th, singer Katy Perry (“I Kissed a Girl”) posted a nude picture on her Twitter page of what appears to be a transgender man. She tweeted: “http://twitpic.com/sdf45 – NSFW! I knew those little white last week of the birth control pills would still have an effect on your body! FU.”
The photo posted on Twitpic (photo blurred by GLAAD):
Perry is referring to the last week of birth control pills that are typically taken as a placebo but largely thought to not have any effect on the body.
Making fun of transgender people’s bodies is deeply offensive. Perry’s ridicule dehumanizes this person and ignores the courage and resolve it takes to live within a transphobic society.
Some of Perry’s transphobic fans responded immediately with more crude jokes at the expense of the transgender community. On Sunday, the LGBT community began its response, calling Perry out for her exploitation.
While it appears the pic was removed this morning, we urge those offended to tweet Katy Perry directly and educate her about how jokes like this contribute to a climate that puts transgender people in harms way. If you’re on Twitter, please post this tweet to Katy Perry:
@katyperry Ridiculing a photo of a #transgender person is never OK. Pls educate yourself. (Pls RT!)
Related Posts:The Cleveland Show Continues Its Offensive Depictions of LGBT People
December 17, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Following a transphobic Nov. 22 episode, Fox’s The Cleveland Show on Sunday Dec. 13 aired yet another episode exploiting overtly defamatory stereotypes. In the episode, Cleveland remembers his last “homosexual Christmas party” where Herbert, a pedophile character from Fox’s Family Guy series, sings Christmas carols to Cleveland and a group of children. Equating pedophilia with being gay is one of the most pernicious and defamatory 
anti-gay stereotypes. It is an association that one would expect to come from anti-gay activists – not from a show that purports to be supportive of our community.
This is the third incident of defamatory anti-LGBT content on The Cleveland Show this year. GLAAD recently met with and expressed our concerns to the producers of the show, and we believe they need to hear from you – members of our community and our allies – about why this repeated exploitation of defamatory stereotypes for the sake of easy laughs is wrong and hurtful.
Please direct your comments to The Cleveland Show’s Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/TheClevelandShow
Related Posts:GLAAD Responds to Bilerico and The Cleveland Show
November 30, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
This morning, Bilerico blogged about the November 22 episode of The Cleveland Show, “A Brown Thanksgiving,” and GLAAD’s perceived lack of a response to the episode. We had reached out to Fox and the show’s producers, prior to Bilerico’s blog, to schedule a meeting. This is part of an ongoing discussion that GLAAD is having with Fox regarding consistent homophobic and transphobic jokes in some of its animated programming. The problematic transgender episode Bilerico points to is one of several instances that the Entertainment Team will be discussing with them, as well as advocating for more fair LGBT inclusion.
You can view the episode here:
GLAAD posts snapshots on a weekly basis on the home page, where you can read about our transgender advocacy. Reporters, producers, and editors consistently get terminology wrong and our Programs team is working to educate and correct stories that run as well as proactively tell stories of the transgender community. Just last week GLAAD worked with a San Diego news station after a sensational transgender story. Some other recent examples:
Two weeks ago we advocated the Honolulu Star Bulletin correct a story about the transgender victim of a hate crime where they used problematic terminology. The same week we also posted several blog posts at glaadBLOG.org with leading trans advocates for Transgender Day of Remembrance and a video with Candis Cayne discussing the power in our visibility.
Earlier this month Seventeen magazine released a letter to readers after our Director of National News sat down with editors about their article “My BOYFRIEND turned out to be a girl.”
In just the last eight weeks, our Media Programs team have pitched a story on a transgender pianist to the New York Times which ran in their Sunday edition, helped draft and secure a mother’s story about her transgender daughter on The Grio (MSNBC’s African American site) and media trained Reverend David Weekly before an appearance on The Early Show.
In September the Entertainment team received an apology from Lil Mama, a judge on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew, after we received several incident reports about an anti-transgender critique.
GLAAD’s statements on MTV/Lil Mama’s remarks received widespread media coverage and the America’s Best Dance Crew statements called attention to transgender issues in mainstream press. We hope those interested in learning more will continue to check glaad.org and glaadBLOG for updates.
Related Posts:Follow-Up to South Park Call to Action
November 16, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Dear GLAAD Supporter:
Thank you for your response regarding the South Park “F Word” episode. We have heard from many who believe we acted harshly in our stance. We have also heard from those who supported our stance. The responses indicate how widely our experiences and perspectives vary.
We continue to believe this word is associated with violence and hatred, as evidenced by incidents in the last six months:
- In Seattle, a gay couple’s home was tagged, “faggots rape kids.” The tagger was arrested but the case dismissed.
- An Illinois teacher discussing arts funding said to his class: “How would you feel about your tax dollars going to pay for some black fag in New York to take pictures of other black fags?” He walked away with only a warning.
- In San Francisco, a city usually perceived as safe and accepting, the streetcar dedicated to Harvey Milk was defaced. What was the word used? “Fag.”
- In Kalamazoo where voters recently upheld anti-gay discrimination, a 15-year old was punched repeatedly in the head while being called “faggot.”
According to Trevor Project, LGBT youth who experience harassment are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.
However, we’ve listened to all of the responses in support of South Park and we believe, upon reflection, that those who have encouraged us to see more in this episode than typical satire are right. The show’s writers were trying to get people to think deeper about this subject.
What this show has done is provoke debate and that’s a good thing. At the end of the day, what many of us here at GLAAD believe is that this word will still be used as hate speech, but we can respect the intention of the writers. The episode ends but the discussion goes on for the many who live with an epithet that taunts them daily and creates a climate of fear and intimidation. The attention in the media that the Call to Action received started important conversations in print, on comment sections of online articles, on Facebook, and around the office water cooler about this word. We hope these discussions will continue–not just with those of us in media–but with school administrators, teachers and students. We hope that these conversations will result in people thinking twice before it is spoken – especially when they hear it in schools and playgrounds as a means of bullying LGBT youth.
We will continue the important task of working with media about how LGBT issues are handled. We hope you will keep sharing your thoughts with us about what matters to you.
Truly,
Taj Paxton, Director of Entertainment Media
&
Rich Ferraro, Director of Public Relations
Exclusive Clip: The Wanda Sykes Show
November 13, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Out Comedian Wanda Sykes braves the late-night talk show boys club for the 2nd week with The Wanda Sykes Show this Saturday on Fox. We congratulate Sykes for being the first openly gay woman and only the third woman overall to headline a late-night show on a major network.
As she did in her recent HBO hit comedy special I’ma Be Me, Sykes will lend her biting commentary to a range of topics: news, politics, sports, pop culture and her new role as wife and mother. Sykes will put her personal touch on the week’s hot topics, with a mix of stand-up, field pieces and panel discussions with famous friends and guests. Her guests this week are Actor Ian Gomez of ABC’s Cougar Town (also known to his LGBT fans from his role as Javier on Felicity), NFL Cincinatti Superstar Chad Ochocinco, Radio Host/Author Tom Joyner and Former NBA Star John Salley.
See the exclusive GLAAD clip from the premiere here: https://www.glaad.org/wandasykesvideo
Sykes can also be seen as the brutally honest Barb on the CBS show The New Adventures in Old Christine, which received a GLAAD Media Award in 2009 for Outstanding Individual Episode-Television for shedding a light on job discrimination faced by same-sex couples. An outspoken advocate for equality, Sykes brought attention to the No on Prop. 8 campaign last year when she appeared at a pre-election Las Vegas rally and proclaimed, “I’m proud to be a woman, I’m proud to be a black woman and I’m proud to be gay.”
It’s so important that Americans get to know the diversity of our community and hear stories about loving and committed couples, like Wanda and her partner.
When people hear stories like Wanda’s in their living rooms, it sparks the conversations that are changing people’s hearts and minds. We hope that her presence will continue to shine a light on the diverse experiences of women, Black women and gay and lesbian people in this country.
Right now GLAAD is working with individuals and families across the country to spotlight their own stories in local communities – places like Maine where marriage rights were eliminated for gay and lesbian couples in the November 3rd and in Maryland where we are working with the Maryland Black Family Alliance to amplify the voices of African Americans and their support for equality. As more and more people get to know our community and our stories, the public support for our equality is growing.
The Wanda Sykes Show airs this Saturday, 11pm on FOX.
Related Posts:GLAAD Expresses Strong Concern about Comedy Central’s The Jeff Dunham Show
November 4, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
On October 23, Comedy Central drew the highest viewership of any premiere in the network’s history with its pilot episode of The Jeff Dunham Show. Dunham is a hugely popular comedian-ventriloquist who incorporates several stereotypical puppet characters in his show, from Achmed, a dead Muslim terrorist (whose puppet costume is a skeleton), to a bigoted senior citizen puppet named Walter.
Jeff Dunham and "Walter"
In one of the opening sketches of the pilot, Dunham and the ever-crotchety Walter see a therapist to resolve their consistent spats. When Walter discovers that the therapist is gay and “married to a man,” Walter leaves the session out of concern that everyone thinks he and Dunham are a gay couple. He retreats to a bathroom stall. “I told you we shouldn’t have come to Hollywood. This is what they do here. Everyone thinks we’re gay!” Walter and Dunham both make references to the actions they associate with being gay. The end result from Dunham: “I don’t want to be gay with you.”
Click here to view the complete segment on Videogum.
Where the sketch with Walter and Dunham walks an extremely fine line between comedy and insult, Dunham’s previous stand-up acts illustrate a clearer homophobic tone. In one such show, Dunham’s character, a furry puppet named Peanut, makes several derogatory remarks regarding a gay superhero named “Gay Man.” “When he flies, his butt whistles,” Peanut says. Also, “Don’t turn your back on him.”
Click here to view the complete segment on YouTube.
GLAAD is closely monitoring The Jeff Dunham Show and reaching out to Comedy Central executives to ensure that Comedy Central does not give The Jeff Dunham Show legitimacy to malign or attack the LGBT community in the name of “equal opportunity offender” comedy.
Related Posts:African American LGBT Themed Play opens at NYC’s Famed Public Theater
November 3, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
The Brother/Sister Plays, a three-part play addressing sexuality, love, and struggle, is running from now until December 13th at the New York City’s Public Theatre (425 Lafayette St.). The New York Times refers to the playwright, Tarell Alvin McCraney, as “a master of language and dramatic construction.”
The first part, “In the Red and Brown Water,” tells the story of Oya, a promising young runner who must choose between achieving her goals as an athlete and taking care of her terminally ill mother.
“Marcus” is a touching story of a young African American man’s struggle with his sexual orientation in a poverty-stricken Louisiana town. Although Marcus initially has difficulty accepting that he is gay, he learns to love and appreciate himself. The story of he and his friendships with the other gay men in his life is handled with poignancy and undeniable humor.
The Brother/Sister Plays
“The Brothers Size,” which won McCraney The New York Times Outstanding Playwright award, follows Oshoozi Size, a man recently released from prison who is trying to forget his life behind bars and the memory of his romantic relationship with his former cellmate, Elegba.
McCraney is not new to addressing pertinent LGBT issues through the lens of theater. Although only 29, he won the 2009 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off-Broadway. His plays often pull from his experiences as a gay African-American raised in the Louisiana projects. He originally had dreams of becoming a dancer and his critically acclaimed play, Wig Out! centered on the relationships between the men in rival NYC drag ball houses (made legendary by their dance competitions). “Two black men loving one another is a revolutionary act. I wanted to put it on stage – these men, in all forms of color, trying to figure out how to love themselves and each other,” he told TimesOnline in a recent interview.
The Brother/Sister Plays shares the richness and complexity of the African-American gay experience with McCraney’s characteristic brilliance and grace.
Tickets for The Brother/Sister Plays are available on the Public Theatre’s website.
(Entertainment Media Intern, Lauren Mattia, contributed to this blog)
Related Posts:GLAAD Applauds Scholastic Inc. for Their Decision to Feature an LGBT-Inclusive Book in its Book Fairs
October 29, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Earlier this week, members of the LGBT community alerted GLAAD that Scholastic Inc. was excluding Lauren Myracle’s Luv Ya Bunches from its book fairs across the country. The book features a young girl, Milla, being raised by lesbian parents. “Scholastic is offering Luv Ya Bunches in our Book Clubs. We decided we would not offer this title in Fairs… We review thousands of books each year and only a limited number can be carried in our channels,” was the statement on their Web site. Scholastic added that the company was still reviewing it for possible inclusion in the spring.
GLAAD reached out to executives at Scholastic to ask that the company reconsider its decision. In addition, Change.org, the web-based organizing community, generated over 4,000 signatures on its petition requesting that people make their voices heard.
After discussions with GLAAD and concerns from community members and allies, Scholastic yesterday issued the following statement: “Scholastic does not censor books…we are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same sex parents. Having completed our review of Luv Ya Bunches, Scholastic Book Fairs will carry the title in our spring fairs for middle school. Scholastic is proud of our long history of providing books that will appeal to the wide range of interests and reading abilities of children in the many diverse cultures and communities we serve. Luv Ya Bunches is just one example.”
“We applaud Scholastic’s decision to include Luv Ya Bunches in its spring book fairs and appreciate the work already being done by Scholastic to promote the book in its book clubs,” said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. “In communities across this country there are children like the character of Milla, who are being raised by loving and committed gay and lesbian parents. When children read about families like Milla’s, it helps reduce the kinds of intolerance, bullying and harassment that gay youth–and the kids of gay parents–often face on a daily basis.”
Related Posts:GLAAD Issues Statement to TMZ Regarding Mickey Rourke’s Tirade
October 9, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Earlier today, TMZ alerted GLAAD to a video on their site of Academy Award nominated actor Mickey Rourke lamenting being unable to use the F-word freely. He proceeds to use the offensive anti-gay slur numerous times.
GLAAD issued a statement to TMZ today in response to their post showing Rourke repeatedly using and defending the F-word. Rourke is a part of a small list of celebrities who see the word as harmless. GLAAD does not agree. President Jarrett Barrios said:
“This is a slur that, regardless of what Mickey Rourke has convinced himself that it means, is often the last word that gay people, and gay youth in particular, hear before they’re bullied, harassed or assaulted.
Rourke is showing himself to be painfully ignorant of how this vulgar, abusive slur feeds a climate of anti-gay hatred, intolerance and violence.
Related Posts:Rourke either needs to figure this out, or media needs to stop giving him a platform for promoting these kinds of slurs.”
Out Counts at the Emmys
September 21, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Last night’s 61st Primetime Emmy Awards represented a great achievement in visibility for members of the LGBT community. The show was hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, the Emmy-nominated star of CBS’ How I Met Your Mother and an actor who has only seen his profile rise since coming out publicly in 2006. Harris got a big thumbs up on his hosting from encore Emmy winner Jon Stewart. “You’re doing a wonderful job,” Stewart said. “I’m serious. You’re tremendous. And these shows, they usually suck.”
Cherry Jones accepts the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Cherry Jones took home the statue for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as President Allison Taylor on Fox’s 24. In her speech, Jones saluted the artistry and gifts of her co-workers as Keifer Sutherland looked on with obvious pride in his co-star.
The trophy for Outstanding Dramatic Series went to AMC’s hit drama Mad Men starring Jon Hamm and Bryan Batt. Batt is a speaker at the upcoming Out in Hollywood III: The Rise of the Out Actor, an invitation-only panel discussion presented by GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Program in conjunction with the SAG National LGBT Actors Committee. At the panel, prominent actors, casting directors, producers and directors will discuss the opportunities and challenges actors face by coming out.
The LGBT community was also well represented behind the scenes. Irish lesbian Dearbhla Walsh earned the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for Little Dorritt (PBS), based on the work of Charles Dickens. In her speech, Walsh thanked her partner, Irish television presenter Anna Nolan. Kristin Chenoweth won the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the now canceled Pushing Daisies (ABC) produced by the out team of Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks. Michael Sucsy, the openly gay writer/director/producer of Grey Gardens (HBO) accepted the award for Outstanding Made for TV Movie.
GLAAD celebrates the work of these talented artists and the networks that support them. As people see stories about their lives and the common ground we all share, it leads to greater awareness, understanding and equality.
Related Posts:CBS Airs Problematic Content on There Goes The Neighborhood
September 3, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
This past Sunday on CBS’ There Goes the Neighborhood, a friendly game of Scrabble became uncomfortable when one family used the word ‘queer’ and another added an ‘s’ to make the word ‘queers.’ The Mullennix family is headed by Chris and her partner, Renee.
The show immediately cut to a reaction shot of Chris Mullennix. On Monday morning, GLAAD received emails from community members asking how CBS could allow the producers of the show to display the word “queers” and to ridicule the Mullennix family based on their sexual orientation. The Twitter community responded with outcries such as: “Cannot believe the families just went homophobic on There Goes The Neighborhood and CBS allowed them to do it…”
The Mullennix Family
While not universally accepted, GLAAD doesn’t consider the use of the word a slur. “Queer” has traditionally been a pejorative term but has been appropriated by some LGBT people to describe themselves and many value the term for its sense of defiance. Yet in this instance, the word seemed to have been used as an insult given previous conflict between the Mullennixes and the Nelsons, the family that played the “s” to create “queers.” This was especially evident in the laughter that ensued among the Nelsons. GLAAD stands in objection to that use.
As the episode continued, however, CBS used the conflict as a basis for telling Chris’ story of feeling like an outsider and to demonstrate the conflict between the families that would emerge later. Chris is portrayed as a mother and partner concerned about how her family will survive financially if they don’t win the show’s $250,000 prize. This portrayal represents the reality for many LGBT families struggling in tough economic times. We hope that in the future CBS will focus more on the personal stories of the Mullennix family and dramatizing how they, like many American families, are working together to ensure a stable financial future.
CBS recently received a Failing grade in the GLAAD Network Responsibility Index. Since the NRI’s release, GLAAD’s Entertainment Program has lobbied CBS for an audience with programming executives to offer suggestions on how it can diversify its programming to better include the lives of LBGT people. At the Television Critics Association meeting, CBS President Nina Tassler was reported as saying, “we certainly have to include [LGBT characters] in our scripted programming.”
Last week, GLAAD received an initial positive response to our requests. GLAAD thanks its members for voicing their concerns about CBS. Readers can stay tuned to this blog or follow us on Twitter for updates on GLAAD’s ongoing conversations with that network.
Related Posts:Wendy Williams Producer Apologizes for Offending Drag Performer
August 25, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Last week, Advocate.com posted an article describing an incident at The Wendy Williams Show. New York based performance artist and drag performer Erickatoure Aviance was in line on Wednesday, August 12th to attend a taping of the show when she was told that her outfit was too flamboyant for the show’s studio audience. Aviance was offended that the longtime host would have a policy that would exclude drag performers when Williams has joked in the past about how she resembles a drag performer. GLAAD responded to the incident reports it received and spoke personally to the show’s production company, Debmar-Mercury.
Wendy Williams
After speaking with GLAAD, the executive involved in the incident issued a formal apology:
“Much of the success of The Wendy Williams Show is due to our incredibly diverse and colorful audience and we all agree that fashion is a true form of self expression. But in an attempt to explain and enforce our show’s dress code, I was not as sensitive as I could have been to Ericka, the LGBT community or drag’s long history of being a target of discrimination. And for that, I sincerely apologize as it was never my intention to offend in any way.” ~ Lonnie Burstein, Executive Vice President, Programming & Production, Debmar-Mercury
GLAAD looks forward to working with Wendy Williams and Debmar-Mercury on ways it can foster its work within the LGBT community and improve the representation of the lives of LGBT people on its various shows.
Related Posts:Brokeback Mountain Shirts on Display at Gene Autry Museum
August 20, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
GLAAD was present last week at the Autry National Center as the historical cultural institution held a ceremony to induct “the shirts” from Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain into the Center’s collection of movie memorabilia that symbolize the American West. The shirts will be on display in the Gene Autry Imagination Gallery at the Center.
Gregory Hinton addresses the crowd with the iconic shirts in the background.
The intertwined shirts, worn by Jake Gyllenhaal’s character Jack and Heath Ledger’s Ennis, were an unforgettable part of the film. At the film’s heartbreaking end, Ennis embraces them as a symbol of loss and he and Jack’s lasting love for each other. In a speech at the induction ceremony, Tom Gregory, a noted film memorabilia collector who acquired the Brokeback Mountain shirts in a charity auction and generously loaned them to the Autry National Center, called the shirts, “our generation’s Ruby slippers” a reference to Dorothy’s fabled shoes in The Wizard of Oz. Brokeback Mountain was a cultural phenomenon when it was released in 2005, winning Outstanding Film-Wide Release at the 2006 GLAAD Media Awards and the 2006 Academy Award for Directing, Original Music and Original Screenplay.
In a news release issued from the Autry National Center, the Center noted, “The iconic shirts are at the center of the Contemporary Westerns case in order to highlight Brokeback Mountain’s significance in keeping the Western genre alive and thriving in the new millennium, and also to spotlight the LGBT community’s struggle for safety and inclusion in the rural, Western communities from where many originate yet often feel forced to abandon.”
The shirts will be featured alongside Western film memorabilia from films that define the genre, like Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, director John Ford and John Wayne’s Stagecoach, Young Guns and Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. Jeffrey Richardson, the Center’s Assistant Curator of Film and Popular Culture remarked that for younger audiences, Brokeback Mountain is the first Western they have ever seen. This means that for those audiences, the presence of LGBT characters and the Western are indelibly linked, imbedding our stories into the fabric of the culture of the American West.
Heath Ledger as Ennis in Brokeback Mountain
The Autry National Center is visited by thousands and hosts student groups from around the country. It is named for Gene Autry, the writer of legendary songs “Back in the Saddle Again” and “Here Comes Santa Claus” who was dubbed the “singing cowboy” in the 1930s and appeared in over 93 films and recorded over 650 songs before his death in 1998. Jackie Autry, his widow and Chairman of the Autry Center, was on hand to celebrate the occasion. Also present were members of the International Gay Rodeo Association, comprised of regions from around the world, who promote the LGBT country western lifestyle.
Last week’s induction ceremony was the brainchild of author and filmmaker, Gregory Hinton. It was Hinton who tracked down Tom Gregory in January, 2009 to inquire about the shirts. With Hinton’s persistence and dedication, he persuaded both Gregory and the Center’s Staff to bring the shirts to the Center for display.
In the wake of enthusiasm about the event, the Center along with Hinton, are planning upcoming panels on media images of gays in the West. Throughout the rest of the year, GLAAD will provide programming support for future panels designed to raise the profile of gays in the historic West and contemporary Western culture and ask provoking questions like one Hinton posed at the ceremony, “Where are the Ennis and Jacks of today?”
Related Posts:GLAAD Wants FX to Go Back to Being Good
July 31, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
At this time last year, FX was the leader in LGBT content according to GLAAD’s 2008 Network Responsibility Index (NRI), thanks to the presence of LGBT characters in shows like Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Dirt and The Riches. In this year’s NRI, however, the cabler’s representation of lives of LGBT people dropped 34%, the biggest decline of any of the networks. Simply, LGBT people are showing up less and less on FX. When they do show up, some images have been problematic.
Daniel Sunjata plays Franco on "Rescue Me"
Take Tuesday night’s episode of Rescue Me. For all of season five, the men of Fire Station 62 have been wondering if Franco’s girlfriend Carla was a lesbian. In Tuesday night’s episode the guys have a party to help Garrity pay his outstanding medical bills and Franco’s girlfriend invites her friends, who turn out to be lesbians. The men flirt with the women in hopes they will “score.”
The men of “Rescue Me” are lovable every-men and in this episode, they are hoping fortune finds them in the hands of a lesbian woman. To be fair, this type of sexualizing of conventionally feminine lesbians is commonplace in television. However, the show takes a problematic turn when lesbians who are less conventionally feminine enter the bar. These characters are portrayed as rogue and overly aggressive towards the men.
One of the firefighters tells the others to “batten down the hatches and put locks on the men’s room door” and then says, “I’ve got the chains, who’s got a trailer hitch.” Both statements suggest an adversarial tone between straight men and lesbian women and play to misconceptions about lesbian and straight male interaction. The reference to a truck and chains is troubling because of the aggression it implies. GLAAD’s Los Angeles office received calls from concerned viewers wanting to know our response to the show.
GLAAD has enjoyed a solid working relationship with FX. Rescue Me has worked to include stories of the lives of gay and lesbian people since its first season in 2004. Past storylines have included the gay son of the Chief talking about gay firefighters who died on 9/11; Mikey, the show’s resident nice guy, exploring his sexuality; and Tommy’s high school-age daughter Colleen dating a girl.
In response to this show and in an effort to reinvigorate FX’s position as an industry leader, GLAAD and FX Public Relations will re-open a dialogue to support the network and the show in more accurately representing the lives of lesbian characters and the different forms of gender expression.
Related Posts:Bestselling Author E. Lynn Harris Dies
July 27, 2009 by Taj Paxton, GLAAD's Director of Entertainment Media
Media reports are now pouring in confirming that beloved author E. Lynn Harris has passed away of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, as first reported by Arkansas Sports 360 and confirmed by blogger Rod McCollum of Rod 2.0. Harris, the writer of groundbreaking gay-themed novels Invisible Life and Just As I Am, was a prolific author, publishing almost one book per year since 1994. From his first mass market book in 1994 to now, his work landed him on The New York Times bestseller list nine times and was repeatedly optioned by filmmakers and studios.
E Lynn Harris
At the time of his death, Harris was in Los Angeles promoting his latest novel, Basketball Jones, the story of an NBA player on the verge of coming out of the closet. This novel continued Harris’ pioneering tradition of depicting the complicated lives of Black gay men in various professions, but he had a acute sense of capturing the intricacies of closeted sports figures. Since Invisible Life, originally self published in 1991, his work was immediately embraced by large demographics of readers from gay men to Black straight women and sports lovers alike.
He was at times criticized for reinforcing the narrative of the “down low,” but to his fans, the novels provided a multi-dimensional look at themes of justice, emotional responsibility, as well as sexual orientation.
In addition to his presence in entertainment, Harris was in demand as a lecturer and since 2003, was a visiting professor of English at University of Arkansas, his alma mater. At the school he was welcomed by his students, Black, White, gay or straight, “They all took me just as Professor E,” he is reported as saying in a 2008 interview with the University of Arkansas Press.
Throughout his career, Harris received numerous awards. His anthology Freedom in this Village won the Lambda Literary Award in 2005. He was named to Ebony Magazine’s “Most Intriguing Blacks” list, Out Magazine’s “Out 100″ list and New York Magazine’s “Gay Power 101″ list. His 1998 book If This World Were Mine was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and won the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence. During his career, he was also awarded the Harvey Milk Honorary Diploma, The Silas Hunt Award for Outstanding Achievement and Distinguished Alumni award from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
His enduring legacy will be his tradition of writing honestly and poignantly about subjects that, before him, were not placed atop mainstream bookshelves. With his visibility and public profile, he elevated the voices and stories of black gay men in the media. The world of fiction and the gay community has lost a pioneering voice and a gifted storyteller.
Related Posts:
