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How 25 Years of Gay Activism in Hollywood Has Paid Off
Culture and Media Institute ^ | 10/8/08 | Robert Knight

Posted on 10/11/2008 2:07:09 PM PDT by wagglebee

If you’re noticing your TV screen turning pink, it’s not just your imagination.

The new broadcast TV season includes 22 series featuring a total of 35 openly gay characters, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). GLAAD, which rides herd over all Hollywood scripts dealing with homosexuality, says the number of series with homosexual characters is a record. These series are on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the CW networks. The total figure does not include shows on cable, like The L Word on Showtime, or MTV’s all-gay LOGO network.

A new Eye on Culture report from the Culture and Media Institute, “Lavender Propaganda,” reveals the depth and breadth of the current media campaign to promote homosexuality to average Americans.  But Hollywood became a uniformly pro-gay industry well before Will & Grace or the slew of 2008-9 network shows.

In 1996, the year before Ellen DeGeneres “came out” as a lesbian on Ellen, Los Angeles magazine writer David Ehrenstein boasted in a May cover story, “More than Friends”:

“There are openly gay writers on almost every major prime-time situation comedy you can think of … In short, when it comes to sitcoms, gays rule.”

Here is an excerpt from my book The Age of Consent: The Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture about the gay influence on TV:

“Ehrenstein, a professed homosexual, cheerfully admits that gay writers are attempting to influence viewers with a homosexual agenda:

‘The gay and lesbian writers of today have been pushing the envelope any chance they get. In fact, they’re encouraged to do so. Since current comedies are positively obsessed with the intimate sex lives of straight young singles, who better to write them than members of a minority famed for its sexual candor … as a result of the influx of gay writers, even the most heterosexual of sitcoms often possess that most elusive of undertones – the “gay sensibility”—‘Frasier’ being a case in point.’

“The ‘gay sensibility consists, according to two homosexual writers, of ‘a very urban, very educated, ironic, detached, iconoclastic attitude.’ Plus, a deliberate overdose of sexuality.”

In her 1989 book Target: Primetime: Advocacy Groups and the Struggle over Entertainment Television, Kathryn Montgomery explains why homosexual activists have been particularly effective in Hollywood:

“Gays had one important advantage over other groups. They referred to it as their ‘agents in place.’ According to gay activists, there were a substantial number of gay people working in the television industry who were not open about their life-style. Some held high-level positions. While unable to promote the gay cause on the inside, they could be very helpful to advocates on the outside, especially by leaking information. These ‘agents in place’ became one of the linchpins of gay media strategy.”

In January 1973, Ron Gold, the New York-based Gay Activist Alliance’s Media Director,  wrote to all three networks, requesting meetings. Gold, who had been a reporter for Variety, also helped stage a hostile confrontation at ABC that was strikingly similar to the strong-arm tactics employed at the American Psychiatric Association convention in 1971, when gay activists openly threatened psychiatrists who viewed homosexuality as a treatable disorder. 

As Montgomery reports:

“Before a meeting had been scheduled with ABC, GAA members were smuggled a script by one of their agents in place. It was for an upcoming episode of Marcus Welby, M.D., entitled ‘The Other Martin Loring’ and it concerned a married man who asked Dr. Welby to help him with his homosexual tendencies. Welby assured the man that as long as he suppressed his homosexual desires, he would not fail as a husband and father.

“As Gold remembers, GAA leaders ‘blew a cork’ when they read the script. ….Instead of waiting for an appointment with ABC executives, the activists – with the help of another network insider – ‘took over’ the network executive offices. Recalls Gold: ‘We knew somebody who worked there who gave us a kind of place of the place and we did a little scouting in advance and we managed to sneak into the offices. The confrontation at ABC headquarters was hostile and explosive.”

It ended with the arrests of several activists. Montgomery notes that although the program in question still aired, “it did have an impact on later decisions….ABC executives decided to invite gay activist comments on any new scripts dealing with homosexuality. Since gays had their own ways of getting scripts anyway, this approach was even more essential than with other groups.”

The other networks soon followed, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation now routinely vets all TV scripts dealing with homosexuality to make sure that the public sees only what the activists want. That means, among other things, no programs showing “ex-gays,” people who have overcome homosexual temptations, unless it is to mock them.

Montgomery summarizes: “In time, the gay activists gained a reputation within the industry as the most sophisticated and successful advocacy group operating in network television.”

The stakes go far beyond television. A September 2008 fundraising mailer from GLAAD proclaims:

“History proves that social change drives legal and political progress. To succeed as a community, we must transform the way millions of Americans feel about us.”

With a record number of homosexual characters on television, and only pro-gay story lines, it’s not surprising that polls show that Americans are becoming increasingly accepting of homosexuality.

The activists are well on their way toward their goal of recasting traditional sexual morality as a form of bigotry. The next step will be to bring government muscle down on traditionalists – just like they’re doing right now in Canada and Europe.

Robert Knight is director of the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aids; assclowns; clownpossefreepers; culturewars; faglist; hollywood; homosexualagenda; homotrolls; moralabsolutes; perversion; perverts; queers; queertv; sodomites; trashtv
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To: TomasUSMC
Have you heard them talk about the Larry Sinclair Story?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Wow! I had to do a Google on the words: Larry Sinclair homosexual.

No, I haven't heard anyone ( certainly not Rush or Sean) talking about Obama and homosexual acts with Larry Sinclair.

Anyway,....I am not surprised. Rush and Sean (who are also too fearful to use the words Marxist or Communist) would certain not have the daring to cover homosexual outrages. What wimps!

21 posted on 10/11/2008 2:36:12 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: wagglebee

Occasionally I turn on a debate, far less frequently a sporting event... but your original comment is correct. Too many don’t know. Maybe their continuity in tv watching has hidden it. Whenever I happen to see part of some show, especially the comedies, it’s like being in a foreign country.


22 posted on 10/11/2008 2:37:01 PM PDT by sionnsar (Obama?Bye-den!|Iran Azadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY)|http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com/)
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To: wagglebee

AIDS should’ve been the turning point back towards a more moral society. Instead, conservatives let the “activists” set the agenda of “poor poor pitiful us.”

It’s just another lesson that when you pander or pity the left wing they just keep coming back for more . . . and more . . and more.

25 years past time of saying no.


23 posted on 10/11/2008 2:37:07 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (u)
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To: wintertime

TRUE

it really winds me up that they don’t mention it .

I wish they would and let more people know what the homosexuals are trying to do in this country and it is not just their sham marraige.


24 posted on 10/11/2008 2:37:32 PM PDT by manc (Marriage is between a man and a woman no sick Ma sham marriage - -end racism end affirmative action)
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To: wagglebee

What, you haven’t noticed that they are balancing them by adding pedophiles in lead rolls. They are going to have to change the acronym from GLADD to NAMBLA-GLADD.


25 posted on 10/11/2008 2:39:26 PM PDT by Steamburg (Your wallet speaks the only language most politicians understand.)
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To: TrevorSnowsrap

Inspite of all the PR......

General Sherman’s remarks apply to this thread.


26 posted on 10/11/2008 2:39:59 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Off With her head.....)
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To: TrevorSnowsrap

stopped watching Bravo years ago and as for non cable/satlillite then I have not seen any of that for years.

with shows like Ellen, oprah, soaps, today show, good morning America etc then I won’t be seeing it for the near future either


27 posted on 10/11/2008 2:40:13 PM PDT by manc (Marriage is between a man and a woman no sick Ma sham marriage - -end racism end affirmative action)
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To: wagglebee

Yet another reason I rarely ever watch television.


28 posted on 10/11/2008 2:40:30 PM PDT by rfreedom4u (My Freedom of speech trumps your feelings!)
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To: manc
it really winds me up that they don’t mention it . I wish they would and let more people know what the homosexuals are trying to do in this country and it is not just their sham marraige.

I believe that Rush and Sean have people who monitor Free Republic.

Rush and Sean are weenies for NOT covering these homosexual strong arm tactics. They are also cowards for not using the words Marxist and Communist. What we say about these 2 wimps ( Sean and Rush) may make a difference in future programing.

29 posted on 10/11/2008 2:41:57 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: wagglebee

Haven’t watched network television for well on 30 years now. As my father used to say, it’s a vast wasteland.


30 posted on 10/11/2008 2:41:57 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: rfreedom4u
Yet another reason I rarely ever watch television.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We do not have TV or cable. We only watch stuff on DVD from netflicks.

31 posted on 10/11/2008 2:43:45 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
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To: wagglebee
“There are openly gay writers on almost every major prime-time situation comedy you can think of … In short, when it comes to sitcoms, gays rule.”

And I'm sure it's completely unrelated that almost all current sitcoms suck.

32 posted on 10/11/2008 2:45:05 PM PDT by Future Snake Eater (My freq'n head hertz...)
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To: wagglebee

I think Oscar on The Office is a good example of this. Although they have used his homosexuality to poke fun at the uptight presumably Christian Angela. For him though he has made a concerted effort to if not hide it, at least be unobtrusive about it. Of course that is regularly foiled by Michael.


33 posted on 10/11/2008 2:49:28 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You ever thought about being weird for a living?)
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To: wagglebee

We are aware. We don’t watch their crappy programs, we don’t read their crappy newspapers and certainly don’t go see their twisted sordid Broadway shows either.


34 posted on 10/11/2008 2:54:29 PM PDT by Carley (she's all out of caribou.............but does have a bracelet!!!!)
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To: wagglebee
Sooo.. you kind of go looking around for articles about faggotry, huh?

Hmmmmmmm....

35 posted on 10/11/2008 2:56:38 PM PDT by humblegunner (If you're gonna die, die with your boots on.)
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To: wagglebee
That's ok...they will have a tiny weenie audience.
36 posted on 10/11/2008 3:25:49 PM PDT by Earthdweller (Socialism makes you feel better about oppressing people.....)
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To: wintertime

http://larrysinclair-0926.blogspot.com/

http://www.wsnx.com/cc-common/podcast.html

THIS IS ALMOST BETTER THAN A VIDEO

He was thrown in jail by Biden’s son, the Attorney General of Deleware. After obambi picked up Biden, charges against Sinclair were dropped


37 posted on 10/11/2008 3:29:30 PM PDT by TomasUSMC ( FIGHT LIKE WW2, FINISH LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM)
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To: wintertime

Rush used the term Marxist in connection with Obama in his third hour yesterday.


38 posted on 10/11/2008 3:30:40 PM PDT by Rastus (This fall, terror has a new name: Obama joe Biden!)
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To: FormerLib

I actually have watched more TV in the last few years than I ever used to. I don’t think there are homosexuals on any of the shows I watch. None on Chuck, none on Heroes, none on Sarah Connor. Heroes actually had a gayish kid in the first season, but I believe they backed down and made him straight. In any case, he wasn’t around long. Prison Break has T-Bag, who was a prison rapist, but he’s the villain of the piece anyway. That may be why they don’t show him as gay any more.


39 posted on 10/11/2008 3:34:17 PM PDT by Rastus (This fall, terror has a new name: Obama joe Biden!)
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To: humblegunner
You wrote to wagglebee
Sooo.. you kind of go looking around for articles about faggotry, huh? Hmmmmmmm....
Exactly, what are you implying?

I ask because Kirk and Madsen wrote a book entitled: After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90's. In their book they discuss the jamming of those who oppose the homosexual agenda. Are you trying to smear wagglebee's character? I hope not as that tactic is used by many who endorse and actively push the homosexual agenda.

40 posted on 10/11/2008 3:35:52 PM PDT by scripter ("You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." - C.S. Lewis)
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