aprii 7.2000 • Ju st mmtg
fTTîïïnTFTRcïlnews
an earful in the ol' Dr. Laura department;
i Week resorts to name calling by Inga Sorensen
About 5 0 0
protesters
gathered
March 21
outside
Paramount
Studios
G W Channel 8 has been drenched
in calls, e-mails and letters from
people opposed to the Portland-
based television station’s intentions
to air a weekday program built
around Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a hot-button
physiologist whose radio talk show, The Dr.
Laura Program, attracts an elephantine audience
of 20 million listeners.
Paramount Television plans to launch a syn
dicated television program hosted by S ch
lessinger in the fall.
In the Feb. 18 issue, Just Out broke the story
that KGW is the local station picking up the
show, which is slated to begin in September.
Schlessinger has publicly labeled gay men
and lesbians as “deviants” and the products of “a
biological error.” She also touts so-called repara
tive therapy.
In February, Brenda Buratti, K G W ’s program
director, told us her station began negotiating
with Paramount last summer, and she said
KGW management was not then aware of S ch
lessinger’s views on homosexuality.
The. pending program, Buratti said, “was
pitched on [Schlessinger] solving relationship
issues.” She says only later did management
learn of Schlessinger’s anti-gay comments.
We asked Buratti if KGW has received much
feedback from the public since word spread that
her station is to air the show.
“O h, yeah," she says. “We’ve gotten several e-
mails and calls.”
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In fact, an estimated 30 letters and calls— or,
as Buratti calls it, “a huge amount, considering
the show is not even on the air yet.”
It appears Schlessinger’s professed views have
unleashed a flood of disgust among concerned
citizens.
According to Buratti, all those who contact
ed the station about the yet-to-be-seen televi
sion program tagged Schlessinger’s anti-gay posi
tions as the reason they opposed the program’s
airing.
“Nobody mentioned anything else but the
anti-gay issue,” she says.
Buratti has spoken with Paramount directly
to stress KG W ’s concerns.
“I told Paramount we don’t want to see any
group of people disparaged,” she says, adding,
“Paramount said, ‘We don’t either.’ ”
O n March 21, hundreds of demonstrators
assembled at Paramount Studios in Hollywood,
Calif., to demand that Paramount Television
drop plans to produce the Schlessinger show.
“Paramount would never give a T V show to
a host that called any other minority ‘biological
errors,’ ” blasted Robin Tyler, California organiz
er for StopDrLaura.com, one of the demonstra
tion co-sponsors.
“It is outrageous that Paramount chooses to
be in business with a woman who is literally
dangerous to the gay community,” chimed
David Lee, co-creator and executive producer of
the hit television series Frasier, which is also a
Paramount production. “She may not have a
club in her hand, but she encourages an atmos
phere where those who do wield
weapons feel free to use them.”
A day earlier, the West Hollywood
City Council adopted a resolution that
reads: “Let it be resolved that the City of
West Hollywood condemns Paramount
Studios for its part in spreading Dr. Sch
lessinger’s message of hate by giving her a
wider forum from which she can shame
lessly attack a minority community.”
A few days later, the head of a nation
al association of sexual minority physicians
and medical students asked television sta
tions planning to carry the show to recon
sider, citing Schlessinger’s “lack of clinical
credentials and the prospect of harm to gay,
lesbian and questioning youth.”
Dr. Donald Abrams, president of the Gay
and Lesbian Medical Association, wrote:
“We are working very hard with experts in
the field to reduce the number of suicides
among gay, lesbian and questioning youth.
Even if Laura Schlessinger stops using terms
like ‘biological errors’ and ‘deviants’ to
describe these young people, you are giving her
a platform to espouse views that are not only
destructive, but at odds with genuine medical
findings.”
He added: "None of us would want to deny
her right to free speech or your right to air what
you choose. However, you do make choices....
We hope you will take the high road and not
participate in the dissemination of this kind of
hate speech that causes so much harm to an
already vulnerable group of people.”
Earlier in the month, Schlessinger issued a
statement that said, in part: “Regrettably, some
of the words I’ve used have hurt some people,
and I am sorry for that. Words that I have used
in a clinical context have been perceived as
judgment. They were not meant to characterize
homosexual individuals or encourage others to
disparage homosexuals.”
Some gay and lesbian activists perceived the
remark to be an apology and became further
outraged when, a few days later in a Boston H er -
aid column, Schlessinger said her statement was
a “clarification,” not an “apology.”
Buratti, meanwhile, says she doesn’t believe
Paramount will pull the program prior to its air
ing. She urges viewers to take a wait-and-see
approach.
“Given all the controversy, I have a feeling
[the show] won’t even touch this issue,” Buratti
says, referring to gay-related matters.
In related news, organizers of Portland’s pride
celebration dismissed any notion of approaching
KGW as a possible sponsor of the June event.
During a March 23 meeting, Pride North
west Inc. board members said it would be inap
propriate for the station that is promoting S ch
lessinger’s show to be officially associated with
queer pride.
Schlessinger’s television program is sched
uled to air Monday through Friday from 11 a.m.
to noon on KG W beginning in early September.
S u r e , W e ' re Q u e e r ,
B u t F reaks T o o ?
here was something a smidgen nettling,
albeit halfway funny, about a snippet found
in the March 22 issue of W illamette W eek.
In a piece titled “Freaks and Geeks,” a bold
ed, subheadish bleep read: “O n an otherwise
dull March weekend, an underground group of
Oregonians metaphorically came out of the
closet. No, we’re not talking about homosexu
als. We’re talking about something freakier—
though we doubt Dr. Laura would approve of
this, either.”
Freakier than homosexuals? W hat has soci
ety come to?
T
N a t io n a l S p o t l ig h t
K, so maybe you were thinking that Out
had become an irrelevant national mag
with its incessant heroin-chic fashion spreads.
Take a peek at the March issue, however, and
you’ll snag a swath of history and a little local
flavor via a photo essay called “Big Night,”
about the international court system.
The text and accompanying pictures high
light the Oct. 23,1999, convergence upon Port
land by court enthusiasts from Oregon and
beyond who attended the Imperial Sovereign
Rose Court’s investiture of new emperor and
empress at the Melody Ballroom.
The piece also notes that the Rose City’s
court system is the second oldest in the land,
after San Francisco’s.
O
■ Got a news tips? Let us hear it! Contact News
Editor I nga S orensen at (503) 236A 252, ext.
17, or mga@justout.com.
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