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American Family Assn. Filtered
The Learning Company's CyberPatrol, the leading Internet filtering software, has added the American Family Association's (AFA) website to its "CyberNOT" list for violating its standards on intolerance by advocating prejudice or discrimination based on sexual orientation. The situation is laden with irony because AFA has been an enthusiastic advocate for filtering software, partly to "protect" children from Gay and Lesbian material-so enthusiastic that it developed a business relationship with and actively promoted a CyberPatrol competitor, Log-On's X-STOP. But the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's (GLAAD)Interactive Media Director Loren Javier said, "Perhaps now the AFA understands the value of free speech for all on the Internet. GLAAD hopes the AFA will combat Internet censorship and oppose all policies requiring Intemet filtering software use by schools and libraries."
But unsurprisingly, AFA did not seem open to that suggestion so much as ready to blame Gays and Lesbians. In its own May 28 "Action Alert" on the subject, AFA Executive Assistant Buddy Smith said, "We recognize that intolerance can become drastic - leading to hatred and violence-and must be avoided at all costs. However, CyberPatrol has elected to block the AFA website with their filter because we have simply taken an opposing viewpoint [to] the political and cultural agenda of the homosexual rights movement. We will oppose the hypocrisy of CyberPatrol, which allows publications like [Gay and Lesbian national magazine] The Advocate and groups like 'Citizens Against Homophobia' and 'Digital Queers' to oppose time-honored Judeo-Christian definitions of sexuality, marriage and family but filters out the Scripture-based stand AFA takes against homosexuality." Smith took the gloves off even further in speaking with Wired News, saying, "The bottom line is, there's somebody [at The Learning Company] who doesn't like us and said, 'We'll put a block on them."' Smith said that when he asked a representative of The Learning Company, "Can someone oppose the homosexual agenda and not be blocked?" he was told, "That's a good question-but I can't answer it."
The Learning Company's oversight committee met on June 9, but AFA's Smith decided it was too expensive for him to fly to Framingham, MA to join the discussion. The committee is made up of 12 people from outside the company, including a representative from GLAAD and one from Morality in Media. Other sites which have been blocked by CyberPatrol for intolerance include Topeka, KS homophobe Fred Phelps' GodHatesFags, the David Duke Report, and WhitePower.com. The Learning Company believes it is taking an appropriate middle ground, since it's received flak from both the right and the left, and emphasizes that no software can replace parents sitting down with their children and discussing values face-to-face.
Among the bases for CyberPatrol's exclusion of the AFA are statements that "homosexuality and AIDS are inseparably connected" (clearly a statement from someone who's gone years without checking the Centers for Disease Control reports) and "a homosexual is more likely to be a pedophile than a heterosexual is" (a conclusion which can only be reached either by assuming the lowest available estimates for how many Gays there are, or by considering every male pedophile who victimizes male children to be Gay-but more than 90% of sexual assaults against children are generally believed to be committed by heterosexuals, and in the large majority of cases by an adult member of the child's own family), according to Wired News.
The AFA itself says the following statements were also cited in its notification from The Learning Company. "Indifference or neutrality toward the homosexual rights movement will result in society's destruction by allowing civil order to be redefined and by plummeting ourselves, our children and grandchildren into an age of godlessness." "A national 'Coming Out of Homosexuality' provides us a means whereby to dispel the lies of the homosexual rights crowd who say they are born that way and cannot change." "Every time our young people hear about a 'Gay' pride event or 'coming out' celebration, they become less sensitive to the perversity of homosexuality and more likely to experiment with it." "We want to outlaw public homosexuality. We want the right not to have homosexuality imposed upon our sentiments by having it treated in public school curricula as if it were a normal alternative lifestyle." "We resist the efforts of the homosexual community to establish their lifestyle as legitimate. We believe homosexuality is immoral and leads ultimately to personal and social decay." "The information offered here is your weapon to fight the homosexual agenda." "Homosexual activists understand that the vast majority of Americans are repulsed by homosexual acts."
In praising The Learning Company's decision, PlanetOut CEO Tom Rielly said, "While I strongly defend the American Family Association's right to free speech, and to have anInternet site devoted to their misguided mission, I applaud the decision of CyberPatrol to block their site on the basis that it disseminates inaccurate, distorted information about Gay and Lesbian lives." Rielly, who founded one of the major Internet sites for the Lesbigay and Transgender community, added, "Gay and Lesbian young people (and their peers) are bombarded with negative messages about their sexuality beginning in early childhood, putting them at risk for behavioral problems, substance abuse, and even suicide. By this action, CyberPatrol acknowledges that many of those who hide under the petard of "family values" are in fact hate-filled bigots."
Opera News Sings Virtue of Patience
With the first openly Lesbian- themed opera, Patience & Sarah, beginning its New York run in July, the June issue of Opera News features a prominent story on the work and the general invisibility of Lesbians in opera. "It is hard to find any explicit Lesbian characters in opera," says writer Robert Hilferty. "Enter Patience & Sarah...based on the 1969 novel by Isabel Miller. P&S is the first time in the history of opera that the romantic love between two women takes center stage." Hilferty notes that the opera's composer, Paula Kimper, calls it "'An American folk opera'- a simple yet radical appellation, considering that homosexuals are routinely omitted from popular folk histories....In spite of its religious and folk trappings, P&S isn't coy about its subject matter. Any now-you-see-it-now-you-don't ambiguity surrounding the two women's 'romantic attachment' - as historians politely describe their passionate partnership - is quickly dispelled by an unequivocal kiss in the third scene."
Spice Gays
Spice Gays started out as just another female impersonation act, albeit in Bangkok, but a funny thing happened after Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell made her celebrated break from the original Spice Girls: the Thai Transgender group's popularity skyrocketed and they became the center of news stories worldwide. Three of the five Thais were described as "queasily close to the real thing" in appearance by one columnist. Although Transsexual Akanit Rattanavichit-chosen to be Ginger because she's the chestiest-was not one of those, she finds it "very funny" to pretend to be someone she'd like to be. The audience fave of the Spice Gays set, appropriately enough: "Wannabe." [NewsPlanet]
Dobson Hospitalized
Following StrokeFocus on the Family's James Dobson, 62, was hospitalized late June 16 following a "very mild" stroke. He is now "under medical observation and resting comfortably while undergoing a series of tests and procedures to better determine his condition." There is "no indication of paralysis, no loss of consciousness, and his arteries are perfectly clear." [Focus on the Family release, 6/17]
Lorca Centennial
Federico Garcia Lorca, the great Gay Spanish poet, was born June 5, 1898, and the centennial of his birth was celebrated with readings and performances of his songs in NYC, where he attended Columbia Univ. in 1929. Farrar, Straus & Giroux will be releasing a new edition of his Poet in New York this year, based on a rediscovered original manuscript.
Lorca is the most translated Spanish poet of all time and considered by many to be the best of his nation's poets of the modern era. [Newsplanet]
Rockport Is Comfortable With Ru
A Rockport ad which appeared in the June 14 Los Angeles Times, and possibly in other outlets as well, features drag superstar RuPaul dressed in a sharp suit, holding a cane (in boy drag) and wearing Rockport men's dress shoes. RuPaul states, "I'm comfortable being a man." At the bottom of the ad, the text reads: "be comfortable. uncompromise. start with your feet."
Contact: The Rockport Co., Inc., 220 Donald J. Lynch Blvd., Marlboro, MA 01752, phone: 1.800.rockport (762.5767), E-mail: contactus@rockportco.com.
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