Godcasts and Radio: LGBT People of Faith Explore Spirituality on Airwaves
July 29, 2009
From radio to ‘Godcasts,’ religious themed podcasts, LGBT people are reclaiming their voice within religious and faith communities. Hitting the digital airwaves is a rapidly growing trend and here are a few shows that deserve attention:
Tony Sweet
As the host of one of the top LA Talk Radio shows, Tony Sweet, a gay Christian musician, engages LGBT people of faith in Los Angeles and across the country. Reaching more than 50,000 listeners per show, On Air with Tony Sweet hosts people of all faiths to empower and strengthen his audience through music and on-air conversations with individuals from both the religious and entertainment world. A Gospel singer, Tony sang at a major rally against Prop 8 and was also in the cast of a YouTube video response to NOM’s “Gathering Storm” called “Weathering the Storm.”
Alicia Ross
Inspired by her own spiritual journey, Alicia Ross set out to help LGBT people who were trying to reconcile their faith with their sexual orientation. She charted new territory at LOGO with the video webcast, Oh God I’m Gay, which quickly became one of LOGO’s most popular webcasts. Ross now hosts One Gay Under God and invites faith leaders from many faiths and backgrounds to explore religious and social issues affecting the LGBT community that are often not covered by mainstream media.
Candace Chellew-Hodge
Fighting to claim a place for LGBT Christians in the Bible Belt is Whosoever, an online magazine for LGBT Christians founded in 1996 by Candace Chellew-Hodge. Whosoever regularly features podcasts on its website with the goal of providing LGBT Christians a space and the necessary resources to rekindle their faith and build welcoming communities by reaching out to both LGBT people and their straight allies. Whosoever won the first 2009 Pride Choice Award for best gay and lesbian focused nonprofit in the Southeast. Candace is currently promoting her book, Bulletproof Faith.
Justin Lee
Over at the Gay Christian Network (GCN) Radio, a weekly podcast on issues pertaining to LGBT Christians, Justin Lee and co-host Brian Eckstein cover a wide range of topics from the Catholic transgender experience to helping people recover from so-called “ex-gay” ministries. Lee, the Executive Director of GCN, founded the nonprofit ministry in 2001 to provide resources and support to help individuals reconcile their faith and sexuality. GCN builds networks of supportive Christian communities and works with families, friends, and churches to create respectful dialogue on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Related Posts:Gay Couple Detained for Kissing
July 15, 2009
It used to be Main Street in Salt Lake City – a road through the heart of downtown. Now it seems a stroll down this stretch of land can result in fines and physical restraint if you appear to be a gay couple who shows any type of innocent affection towards each other.
On July 9, on the Mormon Church-owned Main Street Plaza in Salt Lake City, a gay couple of five years was roughed up and detained by Mormon church security for what the couple and most media outlets report to be a mere kiss on the cheek.
According to their own accounts, the couple, Derek Jones, 25, and Matthew Aune, 28, were walking home when they paused for a brief hug and peck. Mormon Church security officers demanded the couple leave for engaging in “inappropriate behavior.” Aune demanded to know why they were being kicked out. After a brief argument, the security officers pushed Jones to the ground and then handcuffed both of the men. The couple was detained while waiting for Salt Lake City police to arrive. The police cited both men with misdemeanor trespassing charges.
Matt Aune and Derek Jones pictured in The Salt Lake Tribune
This was a highly visible news story, and received coverage in both the state’s major newspapers, major radio stations and all the local television news shows.
What’s striking is that the coverage of the Mormon Church-owned media outlets – KSL (NBC affiliate) and the Deseret News – reported the story differently than the rest of the media outlets.
A look at the headlines about the incident makes the discrepancy very clear:
· The Salt Lake Tribune: “Trespassing case? Gay couple detained after kiss near LDS temple”
· The Associated Press: “Gay couple detained near Mormon plaza after kiss”
· KUTV (CBS affiliate): “LDS Security Detains Affectionate Couple on Plaza”
· Deseret News: “2 Men Cited in Trespassing on LDS Plaza”
What’s more, every news report about the incident makes clear that it was a kiss on the cheek or a peck, except the Deseret News, which is much less clear about what Aune and Jones were actually doing. The Deseret News description of events is also sparse on details about how many security guards out-numbered the couple and the physical force used by officers to detain the couple. Though neither Aune nor Jones required medical attention, both had bruises and scrapes from the force used by the security officers. KSL, the church-owned NBC affiliate’s story is also heavily one-sided.
In response, former Salt Lake City Councilwoman Deeda Seed organized a Sunday “Kiss-In” at the plaza to publicly demonstrate how Aune and Jones were singled out for engaging in behavior that is otherwise accepted at the same location when engaged in by straight couples.
The follow-up reports by The Salt Lake Tribune recounts, “This time, though, they had an audience of more than a hundred,” when talking about the “Kiss-In.” The Associated Press reports, “About 100 people gathered.” The Deseret News reports, “…about 60 people.” The church-owned NBC affiliate, KSL, reports, “Dozens of people.” It is curious how the church-owned newspaper and television station come up with a number approximately half what other media outlets report.
This could all be circumstantial, but as GLAAD has reported on this blog before, the Deseret News has been widely criticized – even by its own reporters – for not giving accurate and fair accounts of LGBT issues.
In May, the Columbia Journalism Review gave the Deseret News a “Dart,” for “dereliction of journalistic duty” in coverage of the Mormon Church’s involvement in Proposition 8 and the National Organization for Mariage.
The Deseret News is owned by the Mormon Church. However, not until recently has the paper’s journalistic integrity began to be questioned. The Deseret News, and any media outlet, fails to retain journalistic integrity when it ceases to fairly and accurately report on LGBT issues, and downplay any potentially negative coverage of the Mormon Church’s treatment of LGBT issues. This week, the one-sided reports related to Aune and Jone’s brief kiss, and the physical force church officials allegedly used in reaction to that affection, is just another example of why the paper continues to lose credibility.
Related Posts:Media Coverage of Transgender Day of Remembrance Grows, Remains Respectful
November 24, 2008
One of the most important and somber days of the year for gay and transgender communities and our allies occurred last Thursday as communities around the world commemorated Transgender Day of Remembrance.
While these events are primarily a way to memorialize and honor the lives of transgender people, media plays a key role in illuminating transgender experiences. Accurate and fair portrayals of Transgender Day of Remembrance events helps to expand public awareness and understanding of transgender lives.
This year, press coverage of the events grew in both national and local regions. Sadly, this seems to be linked to the recent murders throughout November. Coverage this year was particularly poignant in Tennessee, New York, and Florida where recent deaths shocked and galvanized communities. The recent murders of Duanna Johnson and Lateisha Green, and the recent death of Aimee Wilcoxson brought issues of anti-discrimination laws, proper health care, and community responses to violence into media focus.
One of the many news outlets that overall accurately covered the Day of Remembrance was News-10 in New York. News-10 originally had inaccurately reported on the murder of Lateisha “Teish” Green in Syracuse, however they quickly corrected their reports after outreach from GLAAD and local community organizations. On Friday, the station explored the meaning of Transgender Day of Remembrance vigils, focusing on the local one for Lateisha Green. From the article:
“Many may think that violence against transgender individuals happens in bigger cities. But that, in fact, is not the case. And the recent murder of Teish Cannon brought that to the forefront.”
Reports from Tennessee closely followed Duanna Johnson, often reporting on the pending legal case against the Memphis Police Department and the ongoing instigation into her murder by the FBI. The day before the Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nov 19, MyFOX and MyEyewitness News both reported that one of the officers responsible for her assault, Bridges McRae, had been indicted. National publications such as the New York Times also covered the assault and her death.
Reporters also covered the vigil for Duanna, which occurred on Nov 16. From MyEyewitness News:
“Back at the vigil on the streets of Midtown Memphis, those paying their respects to Duanna Johnson honored her as a woman who became the face of the fight against racism, homophobia and transphobia. They remembered her as a woman who received no justice in life, but whose life and struggle for equality will not be forgotten.”
Other local outlets included Maryland’s The Herald Mail, which focused on job discrimination.
The quarterly magazine ColorLines reported on the day in their blog, RaceWire. The blog, written by ColorLines‘ Managing Editor, focused on the reporter’s personal experience covering the murder of Gwen Araujo in 2002. Gwen was a Latina transgender woman whose case made headlines across the nation, the reporter compared Gwen’s story to the brutal and devastating murder of another Latina woman who was murdered this year, Angie Zapata of Greeley Colo.
Casual Loafing, a weekly alternate newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, Fla covered the day in their blog, Daily Loaf, as well. The blog focused on the murder of Simmie Williams, a Fort Lauderdale resident, who was murdered in February of this year. The reporter highlighted how underreported anti-transgender violence is:
“It’s definitely a problem and one that gets little coverage and even less understanding. One just has to look at the Pinellas County Commission’s decision this year to not cover transgender folks with their revamped Human Rights Ordinance. Or the circus surrounding Susan Stanton.”
Online networks and blogs also observed the day with bloggers from Jezebel, feministe, and feministing all participating in remembering the names of those murdered this year and in providing information on vigils and other events.
The Day of Remembrance was commemorated on many college campuses as well, with reports from newspapers such as Penn State’s The Daily Collegian, Purdue University’s The Exponent, the University of Georgia’s Red and Black, University of Tulsa’s The Collegian, and Towson University’s The Towerlight, reporting on the ways in which transgender lives are remembered on campuses throughout the nation. Vanderbilt University’s InsideVany reported on the campuses’ first-ever Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The University of Minnesota paper MN Daily included a long column on the importance of both remembering the dead, and working to improve the lives of the living:
“For many transgender people, the threat or the fact of physical and psychological violence is a daily reality. The fear and risk that accompany performing a non-normative gender are shaped simultaneously by their experiences of identities. The terrain of work for justice, equity and compassion for people who experience gender violence demands that we uplift and engage in all of these struggles. Thus, the challenge — and the promise — lies in working together, and in creating space to honor the multiple dimensions of each of our identities so that each person might be able to be present, to live in their bodies in their fullness.“
As we reported yesterday, international coverage has also been ongoing as the Transgender Day of Remembrance is commemorated across the globe.
Changing Tactics, Changing Times
August 7, 2008
AfterElton tapped pundits, journalists politicians, bloggers and GLAAD for our take on how gay issues may be used in the media during election 2008 and whether tactics from the past would resonate in the cultural climate of today. Canvassing the opinions of MSNBC commentators Keith Olberman and Joe Scarborough, Hardball Host Chris Matthews and CNN correspondents Suzanne Malveaux and John King, AfterEltoncontributing writer Christie Keith heard the overwhelming opinion that using gay issues as a wedge was a no go strategy in our modern and somewhat more enlightened era.
CNN’s Malveaux said, “It’s not just the times that have changed, but that people’s concerns are different in 2008 than in previous years. The cultural issues that resonated in previous elections aren’t necessarily being emphasized this time around. It’s more pocketbook issues, it’s more gas prices, it’s more the homeowners’ crisis, the mortgage crisis.”
AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis also weighed in. “Society has changed since 2000. We’ve gone from Will & Grace being historic to Will & Grace being reruns. I’m serious. This is eight years later. You can’t do the same anti-gay stuff you did eight years ago. You just can’t. So it’s got to be a finer dance.”
Even Karl Rove, known as the architect of exploiting gay issues in the 2004 presidential re-election of George W. Bush, lent his voice to this story but would not acknowledge the role he played in that exploitation.
“I think it entered into force in the 2004 race simply because it was not introduced by the political actors themselves. Neither the Bush nor the Kerry campaigns brought the issue forward. It was brought forward by a Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts. It sort of exploded on the scene and got a life of its own.”
Openly gay powerhouse politician, Massachusetts’s Congressman, Barney Frank (D-Mass) had an interesting take on what Rove left out of his remarks.
“I think what he’s telling you now reflects the fact that he and the President and their political people tried very hard to whip up anti-gay marriage sentiment in 2005 and 2006 by forcing several votes on the Constitutional amendment, and it blew up in their face. What Rove is telling you is probably true now, but he forgot to add that he’s very disappointed because he tried very hard to exploit it for the 2006 election and it had no impact…. We passed an anti-discrimination bill by a large majority. We passed the hate crimes bill…. I think the air is substantially out of this balloon.”
I chimed in to explain that while we aren’t seeing an overwhelming amount of overt anti-gay overtones in the media discourse what we are seeing is an attempt to use coded language (like so-called “family values”) to target anti-gay voters – just as Senator McCain tried to do in an interview with George Stephanopoulos. Throughout this election season GLAAD will keep a close eye on these kinds of attempts and urge journalists to push past the rhetoric and buzz phrases to get at the heart of the matter and show Americans what’s really behind the words.
Cindi Creager is Director of National News.
