Seattle Gay News du lieu suivant : Seattle, Washington • 13

Ginny Vida: Editor and Media Pro bv Debra Dragovich rom editing children's textbooks to producing an acclaimed lesbian resource book may be an incongruous jump but Ginny Vida Media Director of the Nation al Gay Task orce INGT) made the leap with great success Vida also the editor of Our Riyht to Low: A Lesbian Resource Rook was in Seattle August 14 to speak at The Dorian Group's August event She also found time during her short stay to talk with SON about her book and NGT's ef forts to promote more responsible cover age of Gay related matters in the national media Vida is a former teacher and editor of children's textbooks Our Right to Love was published earlier this year by Prentice Hall and it is an excellent re source lunik for Lesbians touching on vir tually every aspect of the Lesbian experi It has received good reviews in both Gay and nonGay publications and has sold a very healthy number of copies over 12000 In January the book will be coming out in paperback Vida worked on the book two days a week evenings and weekends while working for NGT the rest of the time social life really went up in smoke" she commented The project was com pleted in an astounding nine months One of the most valuable parts of Our Right to Lot is its extensive resource list of organizations services and bars which Vida felt was necessary informat ion ItecaUM "one of my feelings was that Les bians are a lot more isolated than Gay men and the reason that's so is because we live in a patriarchy and men have all the contacts and communications pretty well sewn up And women's sexuality has been terribly repressed too All kinds of thing play into making it more difficult for Lesbians to have a communications network" The media end of NGT acts as watch dog for Gay interests in the media Tele vision particularly has come under the organization's critical eye Though NGT advises networks on its portrayal of Gay characters Vida as director of the task force is wary of censorship A mother in San rancisco recently lost TTry 1 a i fafttA 7 WTjjiti j' NGT Media Director Ginny Vida ing on your network you should not have any negative frequently you can afford to have a few negative por trayals because then people will have some kind of context to put all this into But they have no context to put it into where concerned because we've had such little visibility in comparison to other groups in this country that the viewers have no way to put that into perspective" Vida says she is "frankly orried about the upcoming TV season because there appears to be very little activity by networks this year to portray Gays or Gav themes either negatively or positive think Anita Bryant's campaign may possibly have created some kind of climate and had a chilling effect on the development of Gay themes However there wil be a few television programs to watch for Matlo vich vs the Air orce" the case of Leonard Matlovich will be shown for the first time this month on August 21 pan on channel 5 The documentary Word is Out" which has been given a few special showings in Seattle will probably be broadcast by PBS in October ABC is also expected in the future to make a movie based on the lwok by Mary Jo Kisher a Lesbian and her child custody case The best new the media task force has received lately is that a petition was recently passed by the ederal Communi cations Commission to have Gay leaders added to the community education check list Broadcasters are licensed to serve the needs and interests of the public and what the new ruling means is that broad caster are now required to interview leaders of any group that is significant in the community Though Gay were not added a a separate category Vida says the decision makes it clear "that we are regarded as a significant minority since we are not specifically named on the list we're going to have to make sure the broadcasters know about this decision Mormonism Echoes rom the Past a lawsuit against NBC and its local affili at vs she claimed that a violent scene in Innocent" perpetrated by "Le inspired a similar attack on her daughter Vida's feelings were think overall vve would be in quite a lot of trouble in this country if the media had to be held responsible for every crime that was committed I think that would set a really dangerous precedent for free sjn ech in the broad sense So as much a 1 can sympathize with that mother and her complaint I think a ruling like that would be disastrous for irst Amendment rights in this country certainly protested that program and we protested the negative portrayal of I mis bunt we were not trying to bring a policy of outside censorship on NBC we were trying to persuade NBC to use its own censorship department to ap ply to Lesbians the same kind of stand ards it would apply to other (minority! groups hat we have said all along isuntil you have frequent positive pr trayals of Lesbians and Gay men apwa by Al Becker It is said that a society which doesn't learn from its history is destined to live that his tory again This offers some interesting in sight into the involvement in the signature drive for Initiative 13 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints The Mor mons In the 1840s the Mormons headed west after persecution made it difficult for them to remain among the people in the eastern states The major discrepancy betwi en their views and those of the typical Ameri can of the day was their practice of poly gamy A group organized questioning the moral ethics of the Mvrmon Church and pushed the petyga mists out After nwvig est the Mormons set up a system mure to their Wdag But they began toferl pressure whtn ether westward set tlers stopped by to say Udlo say how about me one of your daughters?" The outraged Elder had to rush off these bums who realize that these were not his daughters but his wives Eventually so many settlers began dropping by that it became obvious that the Mormon moral ethics were once again threatened On September 21) 1657 Mormon Elder John Lee conspired with other church members and Indians to stop the decadent scttlersfrommovingintotheirland A visit ing wagon train was given an escort out of Salt Lake City headed to ard California In an area called Mountain Meadows the Mor mons and the Indians set upon the travel lers massacring all adults Of the 1S7 per son only 17 children all under the age 47 were spared and taken into the homes of Mormons for a proper oybriaging The Church covered up the incident despite a federal invest igatioa until twenty years later when Utah's statehood was incipient They thrn dehvtred John Lee unto the tree A hundred years later theery Our Mormon Ethics" has gone out across the land Coupled with the motto "Save Our Children" the Mormons once a gain want to rid the land of those they deem immoral Even though the Church refuses to deal directly with the real issues of homosexual ity it has given the go ahead to Elder Este to set upon the homosexuals We've heard statements that homosexuals wbould be exterminated Of course sure they'll let the homosexual children under seven live In search of the Church's true I was t4d by the President of the North Sr attle Stake that hrnnoorxuakty is a sin and ft should be (ought utilizing any tactics whatever He has endorsed IrdUMive 13 His Seocmd Counselor Mated that tW Prophet in Salt Lake City he aai that the rnitixlivehould etad and be ts the only true prophet of God But hen the time comes be it twenty years a ill Brother David Estes be willing to submit for the church to the bangman's tree? 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