GLSEN’s E.D. Calls Out OK Senator’s Staffer On His Anti-LGB Message
September 30, 2009
Last week media reported on various aspects of the Value Voters Summit, a yearly forum for ultra-conservatives. Last year, the summit made headlines for its wares depicting then presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype. This year one of the more alarming things to come out of the summit happened during a breakout session titled “The New Masculinity,” which brought speakers together to discuss “principles and ideals for a new masculinism.” During this session, the final speaker, Michael Schwartz, Sen. Tom Colburn’s (R-Okla.) Chief of Staff, made this statement:
“But it is my observation that boys at that age [10 – 12 years of age] have less tolerance for homosexuality than just about any other class of people. They speak badly about homosexuals. And that’s because they don’t want to be that way. They don’t want to fall into it. And that’s a good instinct. After all, homosexuality, we know, studies have been done by the National Institute of Health to try to prove that it’s genetic and all those studies have proved its not genetic. Homosexuality is inflicted on people.”
Just days later, The New York Times published an article online titled Coming Out in Middle School, which also appeared in the New York Times Magazine. The article profiles several gay and bisexual youth from across the country, some of whom live in Oklahoma. Though the article’s subjects came out in middle school, two report being aware of their sexual orientations earlier, at age ten and eleven. The article also references studies that put the mean age for recognizing same-sex attraction at age ten.
In response to Schwartz’s remarks, Dr. Eliza Byard, Executive Director of the Gay and Lesbian Education Network (GLSEN), who is also quoted in the Times article, penned a piece that was published in the Huffington Post, titled Colliding Realities In America’s Middle Schools.
Byard delivers a cautionary tale, urging readers to consider:
“…the clash of those two realities–10-year-olds intolerant of gay people and 10-year-olds realizing they are gay–playing out in both hidden and public ways every day in school hallways.”
She goes on to quote stark statistics from the recently released GLSEN Research brief:
“The brief reveals that middle school LGBT students reported rates of harassment and assault that were significantly higher than those reported by high school LGBT students: more middle school students had been verbally harassed, and a shocking 63% had heard homophobic remarks made by school staff. About two of every five LGBT middle school students had been assaulted – punched, kicked or threatened with a weapon – at school, as compared to “only” one in five of the high school respondents.”
This information is stark indeed and bears ill portent if Schwartz’s remarks are left unchecked by the media. His statements very clearly reinforce and even encourage homophobia in youth who are already, according to GLSEN’s data, committing acts of harassment and violence against their LGBT peers more frequently in middle school than high school.
During the course of his speech, where he addressed what men who are already good husbands and fathers can do to change the culture, Schwartz noted:
“If you don’t have love in you life it’s not a very complete life and yet we fail to talk about it to our sons and to their friends. They’re the ones that need to hear it the most.”
Perhaps someone ought to remind him that LGBT youth are deserving of that same love, acceptance and familial support, and that includes a life free from fear of harassment and violence.
Related Posts:GLAAD Network Responsibility Index Covered by The Tonight Show; SyFy Promises Change
July 30, 2009
GLAAD’s third annual Network Responsibility Index, which analyzes the quantity, quality and diversity of LGBT images on television, spread across the internet, radio and television following its release early Monday morning.
The Associated Press broke the story at 12:01am on July 27 and was promptly picked up numerous outlets, including popular blogs such as Towleroad, Socialite Life and AfterEllen. The story was also carried by major news outlets, including The Huffington Post, ABC News, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly.
In print, The Hollywood Reporter ran a front page story on the Network Responsibility Index. The print editions of The New York Times and The New York Daily News also picked up the story.
GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs, Rashad Robinson, was interviewed about the report by CBS Radio and KFWB in Los Angeles. On TV, CNN’s Showbiz Tonight and American Morning reported on GLAAD’s findings, but perhaps the most memorable (and hilarious) reference to the Network Responsibility Index came courtesy of Conan O’Brien on The Tonight Show:
TV Guide‘s Matt Mitovich also did an excellent job of covering GLAAD’s report. After his initial story, Mitovich reached out to the networks that received Failing grades in the Network Responsibility Index. Although most declined comment, SyFy’s executive vice president of original content, Mark Stern, touted several gay characters on upcoming series.
Ming-Na as Camille Wray in Stargate: Universe
From TVGuide.com:
“On Stargate Universe, one of the main female characters, we discover, is a lesbian and has a wife at home. It’s a pretty important facet of who that character is,” he says. ER alum Ming-Na plays intergalactic diplomat Camille Wray, while 24’s Reiko Aylesworth recurs as her wife.
Similarly the Galactica prequel spin-off Caprica has at least two main characters depicted as being in gay relationships. “[One] is a ‘goodfella’-type, and we discover in a nonchalant way that he is gay, with a husband,” Stern says. “It was very interesting to me to take what is traditionally a very heterosexual role in an organization that we think of as being extremely homophobic, and put a gay character in that world in a very normalized way.”
We commend SyFy for working to ensure the LGBT community is fairly represented in their original programming and hope that the other networks will take our recommendations to heart as well.
Related Posts:Anti-Gay Infomercial Resurfaces in North Carolina and California
June 22, 2009
Back in February, we blogged about partnering with LGBT community members and leaders in several local markets who were responding to an anti-gay infomercial titled Speechless: Silencing the Christians, which was produced by the American Family Association. Local expressions of concern led stations in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio to either decline to air the infomercial or postpone airing it indefinitely.
Just this week GLAAD has received three more reports of constituents spotting the anti-gay paid program on their local affiliates. One person saw it in West Hollywood, California on Independent Cable Channel, KDOC on Sunday, June 21, where it aired from 7 to 8 p.m. Another GLAAD constituent alerted us that the infomercial aired on WJZY the CW Channel 46 in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, June 20 from 9 to 10 p.m. And we heard from other GLAAD constituents that the program aired on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, California on Sunday, June 21 (Special thank you to these twitter users for the heads up on Fresno: Gayrainarmy, k8cch14 and jace78).
We appreciate our members alerting us to this information and urge local constituents to take their cue from other local folks who saw this program in the past and spoke out about the fear-mongering rhetoric contained in the hour-long piece. GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson had this to say in his Huffington Post opinion piece about this issue last February:
The infomercial was created and financed by the anti-gay American Family Association and features interviews with anti-gay activists who make a series of predictable, breathless, fear-mongering claims about LGBT people and equality.
As you would expect, the video is propaganda, pure and simple — manufactured to perpetuate a climate of hostility toward our community and to create a culture where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are less safe, less secure, and where our families are put in harm’s way.
Robinson also went on to advise local activists how to respond if this program comes to a market near them:
And it’s critical that local community members across the country be vigilant should the AFA try to place this propaganda in their local markets, and be ready to effectively explain why the public’s airwaves should not be used to sow seeds of fear, hostility and malice in the communities they serve.
While it is sad that anti-gay activists want to continue to perpetuate fears about our community, at the end of the day, it’s all they have left. Every day, more and more Americans are getting to know and understand LGBT people and our families. For those whose opinions of our lives are becoming more favorable, the single greatest contributing factor is knowing someone who is gay or lesbian. And as more Americans see and know us as we are, our opponents’ myths, attacks and defamatory stereotypes will continue to fall on ever-growing numbers of deaf ears.
We hope that people who live in the markets served by the three stations that are reportedly now airing this anti-gay infomercial will reach out to the stations using the contact info below. Help them understand why you are deeply concerned that they could be providing a platform for an out-of-state anti-gay group to create a climate of fear and hostility in your community.
As always, please use a respectful, approachable tone and appropriate language when voicing your concerns about this program.
KDOC-TV- Santa Ana, California
Janice Mansfield, Program Director
(949) 442-9800
jmansfield@kdoc.tv
John Manzi, General Manager
(949) 442-9800
jmanzi@kdoc.com
WJZY-TV (The CW)- Charlotte, North Carolina
Joe Heaton, Programming Manager
(704) 944-3340
jheaton@wjzy.com
Will Davis
Vice President and General Manager
(704) 944-3305
KMPH FOX 26-TV – Fresno, California
Debbie Sweeney
Program Director
T. (559) 453-8850
dsweeney@kmph.com
Jack Peck
Vice President & General Manager
T. (559) 453-8850
viewercomments@kmph.com
Related Posts:J.R. Jackson
General Sales Manager
(559) 453-8850
jrjackson@kmph.com
