12

OUT IN AMERICA: A REVIEW

Nora Landon

The infrequent appearances of gay and
lesbian people and issues on television
tend to be heavy on heartbreak: a man
dying of AIDS, a young man coming out
to his family, a woman in a lesbian re-
lationship deciding she's really straight
after all. These programs are targeted at
a straight audience, which is usually
-asked to empathize with the pain of the
straight characters.

On June 26, during Gay Pride Week, gay
men and lesbians had an opportunity to
talk directly about their lives and strug-
gles: the accomplishments of the past 22
years, the challenges we face, the issues
that unite and sometimes still divide us.

The occasion was the broadcast of Out in _

America, a panel presentation featuring
seven gay and lesbian activists and three
heterosexual supporters, moderated by
Andrew Humm, co-host of Gay USA on
the Gay Cable Network.

Out in America places the gay/lesbian
civil rights movement firmly in the con-
tinuum of other struggles for freedom and
dignity. Comparisons to the Holocaust
and to the black civil rights movement in
the US were made throughout- the pro-
gram: in the choice of panelists; in the
opening clips of supportive families; and
in the questions and answers.

The panelists were intelligent and ar-
ticulate and were chosen to represent a
variety of viewpoints and experience.
They included: Roberta Achtenberg,
elected to the San Francisco Board of Su-
pervisors in 1990; Kevin Berrill, of the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force;
Richard Failla, the first openly gay justice
on the New York Supreme Court; and
writer and critic, Jewell Gomez.

The most vivid panel members were Lar-
ry Kramer and Craig Washington. Kram-
er, author, playwright and committed
AIDS activist (he co-founded Gay Men's
Health Crisis and founded ACT UP) lit
up the screen with his passion and an-
ger.When other panelists, whom he ac-
cused of being "goody-goodies", stressed
the importance of building coalitions, he
challenged them to explain how. With
his square, unsmiling face and black ACT
UP T-shirt, he was a forceful presence
even when not speaking. Washington, a
Congressional representative from Texas,
was more measured, but equally el-

oquent. When asked why he supported
gay rights, he talked about growing up
black in a color-conscious world and said
he could not "advocate on behalf of rights
for black people without advocating on
behalf of rights for all people".

Given the diversity in gay and lesbian life
stories, it is not surprising that there was
much active debate and little consensus.
The panelists agreed on the importance of
coming out; and that we are many other
things in addition to being gay men or
lesbian women. We are members of dif-
ferent ethnic groups and religions, we
have a variety of political and social con-
cerns. We need to make our presence as
gay men and lesbians felt in all the
groups to which we belong.

While I appreciate the historic im-
portance of this broadcast, I wish I could
say that I liked the program better. My
biggest complaint with Out in America is
that it overlooked women. Of the ten
panelists, only three were women.While
much was made of the comparisons.to the
Holocaust and the black civil rights
movement, there was almost no mention
of the women's movement, which has had
an enormous impact on lesbians and on
the gay/lesbian movement as a whole. Is-
sues of particular concern to lesbians,
such as lesbian parenting or invisibility,
were not discussed. The talking heads
format used by the program is inherently
static and potentially tedious. Humm's
job was to keep things lively and stop any
floor fights that developed, and he did
this. His knowledge of the topic, and
ability to think on his feet and control the
discussion were impressive. In moder-
ating, however, he danced back and forth
in front of the panelists, barking out rap-
id-fire questions and often interrupting
them.
comments ended in midstream, and his
intrusiveness was distracting. I thought
the program lacked coherence and might
be confusing, especially to people with-
out a background in gay and lesbian is-
sues. Most of the flaws in this program
stem from trying to tackle too much in
one hour. Since this was a unique op-
portunity to speak out loud and without
apology on national television, the temp-
tation to say everything at once must
have been overwhelming. We have many
more stories, and we need to be able to
tell them. V

 

Many valuable and interesting ‘