| The recent Field Poll suggesting that a majority of California voters are indeed ready to reject bigotry, though often touted as a very positive development (and rightfully so) hasn't been thoroughly analyzed in either the newspapers or blogs.
The most interesting development is the change in sentiment among the Hispanic community - in February of 2000, 39% supported civil marriage rights for gay people, while 55% didn't, with 6% undecided. In last month's field poll, 49% said they were supportive, 42% were opposed, and 9% were undecided.
On the equality in the workplace front -- a shareholder resolution to formally add a nondiscrimination policy to the books at ExxonMobil was voted on last month here in Dallas, getting 39.6% of the vote, almost two percentage points higher than last year, but obviously short of a majority.
If you, like me, have been following this for a while, and thought Exxon was bad, you should see just how bad it is at Dish Network.
The good news is that it's a lot more meaningful to boycott one cable company in favor of its equality-oriented competitors than it is gas from one chain in favor of a fair-minded oil company. And besides, it looks like there won't be many gas stations with the ExxonMobil banner printed on their signs for much longer, anyway.
In entertainment news, for gay primetime drama afficionados (or straight allies who tend to notice relevant content on these shows), the season finales of both Brothers and Sisters and Desperate Housewives featured each series' respective gay couple enter a "commitment ceremony". This isn't exactly breaking news, but what hasn't been discussed in depth is that the treatment of the couples on one show vs. the other were in marked contrast. Long before both gathered their friends and family to say "I do", the AfterElton.com diarist snicks had this to say about how one couple stacks up against the other:
Trying to compare Kevin and Scotty with Desperate Housewives' Bob (Tuc Watkins) and Lee (Kevin Rahm) is like comparing apples with garishly dressed oranges, but when you have two gay couples back to back on high profile network shows, it's impossible to avoid.
I find it applies to the treatment of both couples' 'mantrimony' (a term invoked by the brother of one {guess which show}) as well.
Generally speaking of all the entertainment that is taking a gay-themed plunge lately -- even ABC Family, which is the very same network the 700 Club calls its home, just featured its first couple of gay kisses (same guys, same really bad show, same episode, same scene). Unfortunately, the scene was largely shot in silhouette, but you can only expect a network that airs Pat Robertson every day to go so far.
Here's what the key players had to say about it:
Paul Lee, president of the ABC Family Channel, in a web interview from last summer:
I've actually not heard anything negative at all about [Greek's] Calvin. We're very open about the storylines that we're going to cover, and I think very responsible in the way that we cover all topics, not just 'issue' topics. I mean, these kids are at college.
Tim Wildmon, president of the American "Family" Association:
If they want to have a relationship as gays or homosexuals [portrayed on television], you can do that, in our view, that's okay. "We don't approve of it because of our worldview, but we understand that gay people are real people and part of the social fabric of our country. [But] what's the next scene, a bed scene? Do we show them doing other kinds of activities? All we're saying is let's draw the line at kissing, at physical activity and beyond.
And summed up by Brent Hartinger, an AfterElton columnist:
By his statement above, Wildmon basically concedes that the AFA doesn't object to gay characters and gay relationships on television. This concession alone is revolutionary, even if it was probably spoken, at least in part, to fool a pro-gay Canadian radio audience into thinking the AFA is more reasonable than they actually are. But Wildmon's only argument for drawing the line at kissing? Because it'll somehow lead to actual gay pornography on television.
What's really great about the above is that though the fundies might still have a strong presence in Texas, the entertainment media is no longer as afraid of them, and that will in turn shape the attitudes and tolerance of the next genertion, which means Texas can't help but change with the times.
Another expert on gay themes entertainment is Jenni Olson. She was the brainchild between PopcornQ, a comprehensive database of GLBT themes in film. But like this attempt at blogging, she doesn't wish to restrict herself to entertaining topics. She argues in a rather serious editorial in The Advocate that since Shannon Minter, who was one of the lead plaintiffs on the case that resulted in the landmark verdict in favor of equal marriage rights in CA, but also happens to be a trans man, that we ought to return the favor. She wants to persuade us to... um... advocate for nothing short of a trans-inclusive version of The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to pass Congress. |
