UPDATE: Life & Style Continues to Stand By Problematic “Experts”
March 8, 2010
Last week we reported that the latest issue of Life & Style magazine features a cover story that claims actress Angelina Jolie is turning Shiloh, her daughter with Brad Pitt, into a boy. The cover asks “Is it harming the three-year-old?” referring to the child’s short haircut, pants and polo shirt and also cites several so-called “experts,” like Glenn Stanton from the virulently anti-gay Focus on the Family who says: “They need help, they need guidance of what that looks like. It’s important to teach our children that gender distinction is very healthy.”
Since the story broke, Alana Kelen, a VH1 stylist who was one of the “experts” cited by the magazine, has distanced herself from her quote, claiming that she was misquoted. However, Life & Style publicist Lindsay Ferraro says in an email to GLAAD that Kelen’s quote is accurate. Per Ferraro, Kelen’s comment was “I definitely think that Shiloh is pushing the boundaries of a tomboy look and crossing over to cross-dresser territory. The neckties just put it a bit over the edge, mostly because boys themselves rarely sport ties.” Kelen stands by her claim that she was being manipulated by the magazine.
More troubling then their specious quoting, however, is the fact that Life & Style continues to defend their decision to seek out Focus on the Family for their opinion when in fact the anti-gay organization is not at all qualified to comment on what is healthy or unhealthy for Shiloh. Life & Style is still not getting the message and we must continue our efforts until they do.
We urge community members to continue to tweet the following message from their Twitter accounts: “Tell @Life_and_Style that Focus on the Family employees aren’t “experts” in raising children http://bit.ly/cH0o1N #LGBT”
We also urge you to reach out to Life & Style directly to voice your concerns about this highly problematic article:
Dan Wakeford, Life & Style: Editor-in-Chief
dwakeford@bauer-usa.com
Lindsey Ferraro, Life & Style: Publicity Manager
lferraro@bauer-usa.com
(201) 569-6699 x 648
Sarah Drabick
Life & Style: Associate Publicist
sdrabick@bauer-usa.com
The headquarters for Bauer Publishing (which includes an Entertainment Division that is the home of Life & Style and InTouch) is:
270 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
Tel: (201) 569-6699
Fax: (201) 510-3297
Related Posts:Life & Style Off the Mark in Targeting Gender Identity of Angelina Jolie’s Child
March 3, 2010
The latest issue of Life & Style, a popular celebrity gossip magazine with several hundred thousand readers, features a cover story which claims that actress Angelina Jolie is turning Shiloh, her daughter with Brad Pitt, into a boy. The cover features Shiloh with a short haircut and polo shirt and asks: “Is it harming the three-year-old?”
“Life & Style is way off the mark with this outrageous coverage,” said Rashad Robinson, GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs. “Perpetuating gender stereotypes and targeting children for ridicule about the way they dress is unacceptable, regardless of their parent’s celebrity status.”
The accompanying article cites several so-called ‘experts,’ including Glenn Stanton, from the anti-LGBT organization Focus on the Family, who says: “They need help, they need guidance of what that looks like. It’s important to teach our children that gender distinction is very healthy.”
“Media has a responsibility to differentiate between credible authorities and politically motivated (and usually self-proclaimed) ‘experts’ like Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton, who is not an expert on developmental issues,” said Robinson.
Other supposed ‘experts’ include VH1 stylist Alana Kelen, and celebrity stylist Gili Rashal-Niv, who made offensive comments such as: “Hopefully we won’t be seeing Maddox in one of Shiloh’s dresses any time soon.”
Justin Tanis, Outreach Manager for the National Center for Transgender Equality told The Advocate:
“The length of Shiloh’s hair or the clothes she wears are really matters for her and her parents to decide; this is a family that is known for their fashion. What’s important here is that every child, including Shiloh, has the opportunity to express herself and explore her world in a way that is safe and nurturing for her. Our society needs healthy, well-rounded children whose interests and tastes are as diverse as the children themselves and are not limited by outdated stereotypes of gender. Shiloh — and all other children — deserve the right to be themselves in ways that feel right to them as they learn and grow.”
GLAAD will be contacting Life & Style to voice our serious concerns about this story and educate the editors about how to fairly and accurately report on gender issues. We will urge the editors to refrain from this kind of sensationalism in future coverage and encourage community members to do the same.
Lindsay Ferraro
Publicity Manager – Life & Style Weekly
LFerraro@bauer-usa.com
(201) 569-6699
Dan Wakeford
Editor-in-Chief – Life & Style Weekly
dwakeford@bauer-usa.com
NCAA Scraps Focus on the Family Ad because of the Group’s Anti-Gay Stance
February 26, 2010
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has pulled an ad from its website that was produced by the conservative Christian group ‘Focus on the Family’ because of that group’s anti-gay stance.
According to The Associated Press, “the NCAA made the decision after some of its members — including faculty and athletic directors — expressed concern that the evangelical group’s stance against gay and lesbian relationships conflicted with the NCAA’s policy of inclusion regardless of sexual orientation.”
Interestingly, the NCAA website is maintained by CBS Sports and the ad was part of Focus on the Family’s Superbowl advertising package. That deal ignited controversy earlier this month after CBS aired a ‘Focus on the Family’ anti-abortion ad during Superbowl XLIV. the AP reports, however, that while CBS sells ads for the NCAA website, the NCAA has the final word in deciding which ads appear on the site.
To read more about GLAAD’s work to demand higher standards in CBS’ advertising, click here.
According to the AP, The ad pulled by the NCAA, “featured a father holding his son and the words, ‘All I want for my son is for him to grow up knowing how to do the right thing.’” It also “included the address of Focus on the Family’s Web site and the slogan, ‘Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.’”
Blogger Jeremy Hooper at GoodasYou.org writes that ‘Focus on the Family’ is denying that the NCAA had any credible reason to pull the ad, but notes also how the group fails to acknowledge the overwhelming amount of anti-gay content on its own site.
NCAA spokesperson Bob Williams said that “the decision to pull the ad was based not on the message but on the messenger.”
GLAAD will continue to follow the media’s coverage of the NCAA’s decision to pull advertising produced by the anti-gay group ‘Focus on the Family’. Updates can be found on GLAADblog.org
Related Posts:Dr. Phil to Re-Air Problematic Transgender Episode
July 27, 2009
**UPDATE: Dr. Phil Show Agrees to Pull Problematic Segment. Read more here.**
—————————————-
The Dr. Phil program plans to re-air an October 2008 episode that misrepresents transgender children and features the biased view of an anti-LGBT activist.
On the October 29, 2008 episode of Dr. Phil titled “Gender-Confused Kids,” Dr. Phil McGraw interviewed transgender children and their parents. The show featured two guests, Dr. Dan Siegel from UCLA who specializes in pediatrics and transgender issues, as well as Glenn Stanton, research fellow for the anti-LGBT organization Focus on the Family.
While Dr. Siegel offered credible insight on transgender issues, backed by research and medical experience, Stanton baselessly asserted that children develop transgender identities after parents fail to enforce gender roles. The program’s choice to present Stanton’s biased and unreliable perspective as a professional counterpart to Dr. Siegel’s medical expertise earned the episode a place in GLAAD’s October 2008 edition of Best and Worst of National News Coverage.
Several viewers wrote Dr. Phil in response to the problematic episode to voice concern about the platform the Dr. Phil program afforded to the anti-LGBT organization Focus on the Family (FOF) and which allowed FOF to perpetuate misinformation about transgender children.
As a result, Dr. Phil producers reached out to GLAAD and asked for better resources for future coverage and worked with GLAAD to prepare a follow-up show that featured Dr. Michele Angello, a specialist in transgender issues. Dr. Angello joined Dr. Siegel as another insightful commentator on that show. The episode, however, again featured anti-LGBT activist Glenn Stanton, as well as Joseph Nicolosi, a so-called “ex-gay” activist from the discredited fringe organization NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality.
You can read about so-called “ex-gay” activists here.
As noted in GLAAD’s critique of the follow-up episode, there are still no modern peer-reviewed studies that support so-called “ex gay” groups nor are there studies that lend credibility to their outdated and long-abandoned theories about the nature of sexual orientation or gender identity. Dr. Phil once again manufactured controversy by featuring the two unqualified and prejudiced anti-LGBT activists who detracted from the valuable opportunity to more substantively educate the American public on the topic of transgender issues.
Dr. Phil is now scheduled to re-air the original episode, “Gender-Confused Kids” on Wednesday, July 29, despite the numerous complaints the program received after its original air date.
GLAAD has reached out to Dr. Phil producers and asked them to pull the episode titled “Gender-Confused Kids.”
GLAAD urges you to contact the Dr. Phil show as well and voice your concern about the problematic segment. Tell producers that featuring Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family only serves to misrepresent transgender children and helps create a climate that contributes to putting them in harm’s way.
CONTACT:
Carla Pennington Stewart, Executive Producer
(323) 956-4051
Phil McGraw, Host
(323) 956-3300
Stephanie Granader, Senior Producer
(323) 956-3387
BREAKING NEWS: Dobson Resigns From Focus
February 27, 2009
Breaking news from the Associated Press:
Conservative evangelical leader James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family, but will continue to play a prominent role at the organization he founded more than three decades ago, The Associated Press has learned.
The article goes on to note:
Dobson, 72, will continue to host Focus on the Family’s flagship radio program, write a monthly newsletter and speak out on moral issues, Daly said.
GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano said, “For more than 20 years, James Dobson has used his expansive, well-funded media platform to promote defamatory and false information about the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,” said Neil G. Giuliano, President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
“As Dobson resigns from his role as chairman, it is important to remember his history of false and defamatory claims about our community. GLAAD urges the media to not allow Dobson to turn today’s news into yet another media platform for him to advance his intolerant divisive attacks on gay and lesbian Americans and their families.”
Focus on the Family is a right wing Christian organization based in Colorado Springs, Colo., with a 138 million budget. The organization contributed half a million dollars to the Yes on 8 campaign which took away the right to marry from gay couples in California.
A Mixed Review of Dr. Phil’s Latest Attempt to Cover Transgender Children
January 15, 2009
Dr. Phil McGraw once again tried to tackle the subject of transgender children on his January 13 broadcast. The segment, titled, Little Boy Lost, explored a mother’s journey to understanding her transgender child’s path to living as her true self.
In what could have been a solid examination of transgender children through the eyes of a concerned mom seeking answers from qualified experts, Dr. Phil instead chose to add fireworks and manufacture controversy by inviting two unqualified anti-LGBT activists to “debate” two qualified professionals, UCLA child psychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel and psychotherapist Dr. Michele Angello, both of whom specialize in transgender issues. That plan backfired as the featured mom, named Toni, spent much of the airtime defending her 11-year-old transgender daughter and angrily confronting Glenn Stanton from the anti-gay organization Focus on the Family and Joseph Nicolosi, an “ex-gay” activist from the discredited fringe organization, NARTH, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (you can read about so-called “ex-gay” activists here). Stanton and Nicolosi’s baseless assertion is that that children develop transgender identities when their parents fail to enforce gender roles.
It is important to remember that the political and pseudoscientific groups like NARTH do not rely on – and have long been discredited by – credible social science research. There are no modern peer-reviewed studies that support so-called “ex-gay” groups or lend credibility to their outdated and long-abandoned theories about the nature of sexual orientation or gender identity.
GLAAD criticized the Dr. Phil Show last year for offering the anti-LGBT Stanton as a professional counterpart to UCLA’s Siegel. To their credit, Dr. Phil producers called GLAAD for resources as they planned this follow-up show, and they took our advice, inviting psychologist Dr. Michele Angello onto the program to join Siegel in the credible part of the dialogue.
Although some good information did emerge during the program which supported transgender children being who they are—even a few sound bites from an endocrinologist and a pediatrician from the transgender clinic at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles— the time devoted to refuting the wildly bogus claims of Stanton and Nicolosi took away valuable oportunities to substantively educate the American public on this most important topic.
The popular gay blog Good As You summed up the Dr. Phil episode well:
The primary problem? That shows like “Dr Phil,” with their “neutral ground,” facilitate the idea that both sides hold equal merit. While we get and even respect the suggestion to delve into the teachings of the side with which you do not agree, the simple fact is that when you are talking about LGBT matters, those involved in the professional anti-LGBT industry (as both Glenn Stanton and Joseph Nicolosi are) are simply not objective counterpoints! And it’s not us being closed-off or intolerant to say that. It’s us, as ones who spend every single day analyzing the anti-LGBT movement, presenting our educated findings.
GLAAD will continue pitching solid spokespeople like Dr. Michele Angello to the Dr. Phil Show. We will also remind the show that promoting activists like Nicolosi and Stanton and pairing them for debate purposes with credible medical professionals and social scientists simply elevates and legitimizes their discredited claims. Just as when media coverage examines any aspect of the medical sciences, knowing how to differentiate between credible authorities and politically motivated (and usually self-proclaimed) “experts” is crucial for providing accurate information.
Community Members Protest Dobson’s Induction into Radio Hall of Fame
November 12, 2008
Hundreds of community members, led by the organization Truth Wins Out as part of the Dump Dobson campaign, showed up on Saturday to protest the National Radio Hall of Fame and their induction of anti-gay organization Focus on the Family. The crowd gathered in front of the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Chicago to protest Focus on the Family and founder James Dobson, who was there to accept the award.
Dobson has a long history of attacking and making things up about gay people. Among his many false claims, Dobson has said being gay “has to do with an identity crisis that occurs to early to remember it” and that gay people “have as many as 300 to 1,000 partners in a lifetime.”
He has also falsely claimed that committed gay couples “cannot be a family” and that allowing them to get married would “destroy the family.” GLAAD has decried the Radio Hall of Fame’s decision, releasing a viral video highlighting these and other false claims he has made about the LGBT community, which we posted here and at The Huffington Post.
Dobson also founded Love Won Out, a so-called “ex-gay” organization that claims to “cure” gay men and lesbian women. Truth Wins Out, a group dedicated to exposing the lies of the so-called “ex-gay” movement, has found at least seven scientists and psychologists who say Dobson has distorted their research results for his own teachings through the Respect My Research campaign.
Make Your Voice Heard – Dobson & The Radio Hall of Fame
October 23, 2008
On November 8, 2008, the Museum of Broadcast Communications plans to induct James Dobson’s anti-gay Focus on the Family radio program into its Radio Hall of Fame.
And while the Radio Hall of Fame justifies the induction by claiming it, “does not endorse or support the views voiced by any nominee or inductee on the air or via any other platform,” his nomination came from “the 27 members of its Steering Committee[.]”
Either the members of the Steering Committee don’t know who James Dobson is and of the hurtful and defamatory things he says about LGBT people, or they just don’t care.
James Dobson has a long history of attacking and making things up about gay people. Unfortunately, the media will often times give Dobson a national platform outside his radio program to spread his lies, lies that then reach millions.
Among his many false claims, Dobson has said being gay “has to do with an identity crisis that occurs too early to remember it” and that gay people “have as many as 300 to 1,000 partners in a lifetime.” He has also falsely claimed that committed gay couples “cannot be a family” and that allowing them to get married would “destroy the family.”
Dobson has even gone after entertainment media, asking if the makers of the children’s movie Happy Feet were “getting at the idea that homosexuality is genetic” and said that the Britney/Madonna kiss was, “part of this continuing effort to desensitize people to homosexuality[.]”
Respect My Research, a website run by the organization Truth Wins Out, takes Dobson to task when he cites discredited research and distorts credible research to fit his arguments.
In our video above we highlighted just one example. In December 2006, Time Magazine gave Dobson a national platform to spread lies and distortions about same-sex parenting. The article Dobson authored – “Two Mommies is One Too Many” – was fact checked by the progressive media watchdog group Media Matters. They found it to “misrepresent” science and make baseless claims.
Dr. Carol Gilligan, one of the researchers who had their work cited in his article, was outraged and wrote an open letter to Dobson:
I am writing to ask that you cease and desist from quoting my research in the future. I was mortified to learn that you had distorted my work this week in a guest column you wrote in Time Magazine. Not only did you take my research out of context, you did so without my knowledge to support discriminatory goals that I do not agree with. What you wrote was not truthful and I ask that you refrain from ever quoting me again and that you apologize for twisting my work.
Dr. Kyle Pruett, another researcher cited in the Time article, also responded to Dobson:
You cherry-picked a phrase to shore up highly (in my view) discriminatory purposes. This practice is condemned in real science, common though it may be in pseudo-science circles. There is nothing in my longitudinal research or any of my writings to support such conclusions.
James Dobson doesn’t deserve to be honored for his lies and distortions aimed to hurt and marginalize LGBT people.
Please take a moment and contact the Museum of Broadcast Communications and let them know just who they are about to induct into their Radio Hall of Fame.
Call: (312) 822-0512
Email: Bruce Dumont (CEO) – brucedumont@museum.tv
Email: Gina Doyle – gdoyle@museum.tv (No longer working)
Email: Gina Loizzo - gloizzo@museum.tv
**UPDATE** Due to so many of you making your voice heard, the original address above stopped working today (even though it is still listed on the Radio Hall of Fame contact page). We have listed a new address to contact.
For more information, Truth Wins Out also has a website dedicated to educating people on Dobson’s anti-gay rhetoric they call “Dump Dobson.”
