Joel Osteen, one of America’s leading promoters of “prosperity theology” (money worship) told The View on Nov. 3 that LGBT people “are not God’s best.”
No, of course not. Rich people are.
Unfortunately, The View did little to challenge Osteen.
But with enemies as offensive as Osteen, who really needs friends?
One of the writers at Pam’s House Blend suggests that Glenn Beck’s show on Fox News Channel has dwindled to just 4:30 of revenue-producing ads per hour, compared to an industry standard of 22 minutes per hour. If that were true, cancellation would seem imminent.
For those who wish to see Beck’s paranoid rants exiled to local public-access channels, the revenue-ad claim may prove to be overly optimistic.
A look at the cable TV shows for sale on iTunes suggests that many hour-long cable TV shows run 42-47 minutes with ads omitted — leaving just 13-18 minutes for a mix of revenue-producing ads and free plugs for the network’s own programming. Here are some examples:
Bravo’s shows such as Top Chef tend to run 44 minutes. Much of the remaining 16 minutes consists of relentless Bravo ads for other network shows, mostly the obnoxious Housewives.
Battlestar Galactica’s episodes on SyFy tended to run 43:30 in the final season. The remaining 16:30 included numerous ads for other network movies and shows such as Stargate.
Mad Men on AMC runs 47:30 without commercials.
Project Runway on Lifetime — available via torrents or the network’s web site — runs 42:40 with the remaining 17:20 occupied in part by ads for Lifetime’s admittedly frightful roster of shows.
So I suspect that industry standards vary — partly due to recession, and partly due to different standards on the different networks as well as the popularity of each show.
Glenn Beck may be crazy, but his show probably is not in imminent danger.
When actor/artist Thom Bierdz was asked to return to The Young and the Restless after a twenty year absence, he stated that he’d love to~~if he could play a gay man.
When Bierdz first played Philip Chancellor III on daytime TV’s top rated soap, he was a teen idol–and deeply closeted off screen.
As he recalls in his superb memoir, Forgiving Troy, he lived in fear, but yearned to come out. During the 1980s, sexual honesty in Hollywood meant career suicide.
Bierdz left the series in 1989. Soon after, he suffered through a series of real-life events that made his soap opera exploits seem tame in comparison. One shocking day, his mentally ill brother Troy picked up a baseball bat and murdered their Mom. In Forgiving Troy, Bierdz recounts the long, hard road to forgiveness, and his coming-out process. He also had to deal with the suicide of his other brother.
What Thom Bierdz lived through might have broken the spirit of a weaker person, but the now out, proud Bierdz bounced back, and forged a new, very successful career as an artist. He’s highly in demand for his detailed portrait work, often traveling for the many commissions he’s offered.
This past month, Bierdz returned to his second home. On July 7th, 2009, Y&R viewers were in for the shock of their lives: they had already learned that Philip Chancellor III had faked his death 20 years prior. On the 7th, they learned why: Philip didn’t want his conservative loved ones to know that he was gay. (Read More)
Truth Wins Out reported earlier this week on Manifested Glory Ministries, a “church” in Connecticut that performs ex-gay exorcisms.
We immediately called upon Exodus’ member church in Connecticut, New Life Church in Meriden, to comment on the exorcism. The church did not respond. Today, however, MSNBC quotes Exodus International in Orlando stating that it does not support exorcism — but does not oppose exorcism, either.
And a fringe group called the “Christian Anti-Defamation Commission” has declared the abuse of gay youths and young adults by so-called churches to be an exercise in “religious liberty” and, strangely, a response to white racism. (Perhaps the demons of homosexuality are white?) Hat tip: Ex-Gay Watch.
Most actors long to have one signature role that will define their careers. Sharon Gless has two: Christine Cagney on Cagney & Lacey and Debbie on Queer as Folk. Both series were groundbreakers: C & L for it’s strong portrayals of women in the police force, QAF for it’s day to day depiction of a fictional gay community.
After winning multiple Emmys and Golden Globes for her portrayal of Cagney, it was Gless, a staunch supporter of gay rights, who’s responsible for getting Queer as Folk off the ground.
“A friend gave me the script,” she told me in an interview. “I called Showtime and asked to be cast.” Because of her name, other actors were suddenly willing to appear on the show. Prior to her involvement, many performers were afraid to lend their name to Queer as Folk.
Gless calls the passage of Prop 8, and last week’s CA Supreme Court ruling: “Shattering. I’m a fifth-generation Californian. For the first time I’m ashamed of my home state.”
The star is immensely proud of her new film Hannah Free, which will premiere later this month as the closing night attraction at Frameline, San Francisco’s annual LGBT film festival. The film is based on a play by lesbian playwright Claudia Allen — Gless is repeating a role she played on the Chicago stage.
“It’s the story of two women in a 60-year relationship,” she says proudly. “I appear as Hannah at ages 50 and 80.” As elderly women, Hannah and her partner are in a nursing home — Hannah is stopped from visiting her partner by homophobic relatives. “It’s very timely,” says Gless. “It brings in Prop 8 themes.”
Gless will appear at Frameline with pal Rosie O’Donnell, who isn’t in the film. Gless says that O’Donnell often gets an underserved bad rap. “She donates millions of dollars to benefit children’s causes. She never talks about this, and never gets credit for it.”
Gless remains close friends with Cagney & Lacey co-star Tyne Daly — the two have since worked together on stage. Both actors are excited about the upcoming DVD box set: Cagney & Lacey: The Menopause Years, which will feature the four made-for-TV reunion movies that were produced after the series was cancelled. It will be released in September of this year.
For more information on Hannah Free, please visit the film’s site.
To see the film at Frameline and meet the star, please visit www.Frameline.org.
As a follow-up to stories posted here at TWO and at Queers United:
We’re pleased to report that satellite provider Dish Network, the only major television carrier to not offer Logo, has added the 24/7 LGBT network to its HD line-up. Dish HD customers can now get Logo on channel 373.
Dish Network remains the sole national carrier of Free Speech TV, the somewhat radical, left-wing alternative network that airs Gay USA, a weekly hard-news show, and other gay-friendly programs.
The HD package that offers Logo costs $20 per month, and includes MGM HD and HD Movie Net, both of which air many classic films, all shown uncut.
Dish customers should check the Dish website monthly for installation specials. For the remainder of this month (May 2009)
customers with HD televisions can switch to HD service at no installation fee.
Pedro (2009)
Directed by Nick Oceano
Screenplay by Dustin Lance Black
85 minutes
MTV Films
When MTV presented The Real World: San Francisco in 1994, nothing much was expected. Until housemate Pedro Zamora revealed that he was gay and living with full blown AIDS. Doors were flung open as the astonishingly handsome 22-year-old educated America about HIV — and fell in love — all while the cameras rolled. Pedro lived and died on national television, his tragically short life was heroic and left a lasting impact.
Now, Oscar winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk) presents another masterful gay biopic: Pedro recreates Zamora’s almost storybook life.
Newcomer Alex Loynaz shines in the title role, capturing Pedro’s physical and spiritual beauty. It’s a heartbreaking performance. While The Real World was in production, Pedro’s doctors inform him that his T cells are gone. He realizes that time is running out. MTV offers to back off, but Pedro insists that everything be filmed: including his doctor’s visits, his HIV prevention lectures at high schools, and his blossoming romance with Sean (DuJuan Johnson) who lives in San Francisco, near the Real World house. Additional ground is broken when Pedro and Sean are married on the air, a telvision first.
The film also deals with Pedro’s off-screen family. Screenwriter Black courageously does not shy away from the homophobia that’s intrinsic to Latin culture. Justina Machado plays Mily Zamora, Pedro’s caregiver sister, while Anibal Llares is the largely silent Dad. They disapprove of homosexuality and especially of Sean. But in their eyes, you can see the genuine love they have for Pedro. They’re struggling with their own inner demons, trying as best they can to accept Pedro for who he is.
Matt Barr makes a brief, scene-stealing appearance as Puck, the foul-mouthed homophobe who’s thrown out of the Real World household after taunting Pedro’s HIV status. Barr plays the role quite well, though the actor is too cute to come across with the kind of ugly venom we saw in the real, hateful Puck.
Hale Appleman and Jenn Liu are attractive and likable as Judd and Pam, two housemates who fall in love off-screen and become Pedro’s closest friends. After Pedro passed away, Judd Winnick wrote a best-selling book: Pedro & Me, and continued Pedro’s AIDS advocacy work in his friend’s memory. Judd and Pam are now married and have two children.
The film is introduced by former President Bill Clinton, who also makes a brief, vocal cameo, recreating the actual phone call he had made to Zamora in 1994.
Pedro is a superb film: it’s good enough to have been accorded a theatrical release. We must never forget Pedro Zamora’s remarkable life, or his message of AIDS prevention.
There will be two more airings of Pedro on MTV this very weekend:
Saturday, April 4, at 3 p.m.
Sunday, April 5, at 8 a.m.
These are Eastern times: check local listings for verification. And look out for even more airings in the future.
Many Dish Network subscribers have wondered why the satellite service pulled the plug on HERE! TV, which it once offered, and why LOGO has never been offered at all.
Our friends at Queers United raised that very question in this blog post. Within that post is a link to another Queers United post in which it’s revealed that Dish Network’s board voted down a company anti-discrimination policy by a shocking 90% margin!
Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergin says the anti-discrimination policy is not necessary, since LGBTs are not being harassed at the company. Ergin further points out that the Colorado-based Dish Network follows the laws of its home state, which already bars anti-LGBT discrimination.
Queers United feels that the company should have voted Yes on the bill as a show of good faith.
And everyone wants to know why Dish Network, which offers more than a dozen Christian channels, offers neither of the gay networks.
So is Dish Network anti-gay?
“No,” says Dish press rep Parker McConachie, who not only returned my calls, but was quite friendly. Friendly, but cautious, when he offered this official statement: “Dish Network is not discriminating against the gay community. However, we do not comment on current or future contract negotiations.”
HERE! TV did not respond to a TWO email, but LOGO did. The MTV-owned LOGO revealed that it was in negotiations with Dish Network and urged interested viewers to contact Dish Network and request the channel. But LOGO offered no information on the status of the negotiations.
There are definite questions regarding Dish Network’s inclusion/exclusion of the LGBT community that need answering. If the service does begin providing LOGO, then some of those questions will be answered.
To be fair, it should be pointed out that Dish Network is the sole national carrier for Free Speech TV, perhaps the most radical, far-left network on the air. Free Speech TV is the home of Gay USA, the first, and only weekly hard news show on American television (Gay USA can also be viewed online at the Free Speech website: www.FreeSpeech.org). Free Speech TV has also offered exclusive airings of many fine LGBT-themed documentaries, so the Dish cupboard isn’t completely bare.
But subscribers want to know: when will they get LOGO? And when will HERE! TV return?
To request these channels, or to comment on the Board’s decision to not sign an anti-discrimination policy, please contact Dish Network through its website: www.DishNetwork.com
The Trials of Ted Haggard (2009)
Directed by Alexandra Pelosi
HBO Documentary Films
45 minutes
In San Jose, California, the Rev. Sky Anderson lives as a heterosexual married man. He has raised five children. Long ago, Rev. Sky was a lesbian. Soon after his transition around three decades ago, Anderson became one of the first, if not the very first, transgender men ordained as a pastor. Rev. Sky, now nearly 70 years old, preaches as he has for years, at MCC San Jose. The love between him and his community runs deep and is mutual.
After seeing Alexandra Pelosi’s stunning new documentary The Trials of Ted Haggard, one can only hope that the disgraced preacher will look to Rev. Sky as a role model, and be who he truly is.
There’s a word for people like Ted Haggard: bisexual. He genuinely loves his wife, and he’s sexually attracted to her. But he’s also attracted to men. The B in LGBT applies to people like Haggard.
When it was revealed that Pastor Haggard, a personal friend and advisor to former Pres. Bush, had engaged in sex acts with a male escort, he was banished from the mega-church he had founded, and was barred by the church from preaching and from living in the State of Colorado. (Did anyone ever question the legality of the latter?)
Filmmaker Pelosi (daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) presents a deeply disturbing portrait of a sad, conflicted, browbeaten man whose life stands as a testament to the cruelty of the ex-gay movement.
Pelosi follows Haggard and his family after their “banishment”, as he struggles to find a job so he can feed his family.
As he sits before Pelosi’s camera, Haggard says that the “revelation” of his having been cured of his “homosexual tendencies” in “Jesus camp” were not made by him, but by Elders at the New Life Church in Colorado. The press fallout from that story made Haggard a national laughing stock, and rendered him virtually unemployable. When the money runs out, he asks for financial help from “Christians” so he can care for his family.
“Christians” respond with “You’re disgusting. Get a job, loser.” Pelosi actually shows these emails, followed by brief on camera interviews with cold, uncaring judgmental followers of Christ.
Throughout it all, the Haggard family stays together. Haggard and his wife Gayle read the Bible together. Sometimes they try to forgive the church who abandoned them — but sometimes the hurt and bitterness comes through.
Haggard now speaks openly of his attraction to men, but falls short of admitting that he’s gay or bisexual.
Sadly, he remains afraid to speak his full truth.
Mike Jones, the gay escort who uncovered Haggard’s secrets, is seen on a book tour. He speaks eloquently on how LGBTs have been victimized by the hate of right-wing preachers. He mentions Haggard, along with several others, in this context.
I beg to differ. Far too many of us have indeed been hurt and victimized by fundamentalist Christianity and in particular by the cruelties of the ex-gay movement. After seeing Pelosi’s film, I would name Ted Haggard as one of those victims.
The Trials of Ted Haggard is brilliantly executed. It’s profoundly tragic to see the broken man Haggard has become. The former preacher stands as a testament to what the ex-gay movement, and fundamentalist churches in general, does to those who fail to toe the party line.
I would therefore call upon Haggard to look to Rev. Sky Anderson as an example of what his life could be.
Live your life as who you are Ted, an openly bisexual man who loves his wife but enjoys the “company” of men. Join MCC, where you can preach the Gospel in a manner that Christ would approve of: with love and tolerance toward all.
In doing so, you can live with dignity and help bring down the ex-gay movement.
The Trials of Ted Haggard will air on the following dates in February:
HBO:
Feb. 1st, 4th, 10th & 20th
HBO 2:
Feb. 3rd, 8th, 12th and 23rd
Due to differing satellite feeds for various time zones, check local listings for actual times.
David Alex Nahmod lives in San Francisco, where he does film/DVD reviews & celebrity interviews for a variety of publications. Visit him at: DavidsOpenForum.Blogspot.com
The movie truthfully recalls the suffering of a Christian mother after her attempt to make her son turn ex-gay resulted in the son’s suicide.
The mother remains Christian, but today encourages parents to persue reconciliation rather than warfare against their gay teen-agers and adult offspring. The movie and a related book were produced with the assistance and support of the mother.
Focus on the Family does not explicitly tell would-be viewers not to watch; instead, Focus creates a climate of fear which is intended to scare conservative Christian readers away from media that are deemed to be ideologically damaging to Focus ideology.
First, Focus lies about the movie, claiming that it “casts Christians in (an) ugly role.” Then, Focus:
falsely describes the son as “gay-identified,”
falsely blames the son’s homosexuality — and the absence of a father — for the suicide,
falsely implies that the mother is victimized by an anti-Christian movie, and
falsely states that the movie does not respect a “redemptive” view of Christianity.
Instead of encouraging parents to make peace with their children, Focus idolizes antigay mother Terri Brown, who for 17 years has demanded in vain that her son pray-away-the-gay while she does the same.
Focus antigay activist Jeff Johnston says that the movie’s message against ex-gay falsehoods, parental ignorance, rejection, and untreated depression “runs contrary to God’s [message].”
When Bierdz first played Philip Chancellor III on daytime TV’s top rated soap, he was a teen idol–and deeply closeted off screen.
