LGBTQ Representation in the Media

[Soon]

McDonald's Won't Risk Offending Your 'Personal Beliefs' By Airing Its Gay Ad

It is an example that markets, cultures are very different around the world. (For instance), I've never shied away from the fact that I'm a Christian. I have my own personal beliefs and I don't impose those on anybody else. I've been in countries where the majority of the people in the country don't believe in a deity or they may be atheist. Or the majority of the country is Muslim. Or it may be the majority is much younger skewed. So when you look at all these differences, it's not that I'm to be the judge or the jury relative to right or wrong. Having said that, at McDonald's, there are core values we stand for and the world is getting much closer. So we have a lot of conversations. We're going to make some mistakes at times. (We talk) about things that may have an implication in one part of the world and may be the cultural norm in another part of the world. And those are things that, yes, we're going to learn from. But, you're right, that commercial won't show in the United States.

—Don Thompson, McDonald's COO, on why the gay themed ad that aired in France won't air in the U.S., noting the foreign spot has resulted in "no negatives" [via]


Read more: http://www.queerty.com/mcdonalds-won...#ixzz0qx1ExEIN

[Soon]

Playdates and Releases

[Soon]

ESPN Announcer Pulled For "Sweetcakes" Comment

Being a female sideline reporter just gets more fun all the time — on Friday, ESPN announcer Rod Franklin's sexist comments to reporter Jeannine Edwards got him pulled from a bowl game. And it's not his first offense.

According to Sports by Brooks, Franklin, Edwards, and fellow announcers Ed Cunningham and Rod Gilmore got into a discussion before Friday's Chick-fil-A Bowl about Gilmore's wife's election as mayor of Alameda, CA. When Edwards tried to add something, Franklin said, "Why don't you leave this to the boys, sweetcakes." She stood up for herself, replying, "don't call me sweetcakes, I don't like being talked to like that." His response: "okay then, asshole."

To their credit, ESPN officials tried to pull Franklin from the Chick-fil-A Bowl, but they couldn't find a replacement. They did succeed in pulling him from the next day's Fiesta Bowl. The network wouldn't directly comment on his future employment status, but they said in a statement, "We're not going to get into specifics other than to say adhering to our personal conduct policies and showing respect for colleagues are of the utmost importance to our company and we take them extremely seriously." But Franklin continued to work for the network after another sexist comment back in 2005. Here's ESPN ombudsman George Solomon's account of that event:

On Oct. 1, according to the Chicago Tribune, sideline reporter Holly Rowe lauded Purdue defensive coordinator Brock Spack for using all three timeouts on defense despite trailing by four touchdowns late in the game. "If the coaches are giving up," Rowe added, "what does that say to the players?" Play-by-play commentator Ron Franklin responded: "Holly, it's not giving up.

It's 49-21, sweetheart." Franklin's comment, and demeaning tone, in response to Rowe's legitimate observation was disrespectful to the audience and to a colleague. "It was an inappropriate comment, and we've communicated that to Ron," said Mo Davenport, senior coordinating producer for college football. "There's never a reason to say something so mean-spirited. Ron apologized. We dealt with it internally."

Clearly whatever internal action ESPN took wasn't enough to keep Franklin from offending again. And his second offense wasn't just a slip of the tongue — he was clearly trying to shut down a female reporter and keep her out of the conversation (the fact that it was a conversation about female mayor makes the whole thing extra-bizarre). Back in 2005, Solomon said, "Play-by-play commentators need to take sideline reporters — many of whom are women — more seriously. So does ESPN, which needs to give these reporters more airtime and more serious issues to address."

Obviously they still have a ways to go. They could start with a zero tolerance policy for announcers who don't respect their female colleagues. They also need to take a serious look at the culture of sports reporting and what they can do to improve it. ESPN has screwed up in the past, but now they have an opportunity to acknowledge sexism within their ranks and actually change things. For the sake of all women in sports journalism, let's hope they do so.
Update: Jeannine Edwards tells USA Today's Game On! blog that Franklin called her "sweet baby," not "sweetcakes." Also (like Jenn Sterger and Ines Sainz) she says she didn't report the incident to ESPN herself — a coworker did instead.

Franklin To Female ESPNer: ‘Sweetcakes', ‘A–hole' [Sports By Brooks]
Jeannine Edwards: Ron Franklin Called Me 'Sweet Baby,' Not 'Sweet Cakes' [USA Today Game On! Blog]


Read more: http://jezebel.com/5723357/espn-anno...#ixzz1A1fkxrPC

[MsTinkerbelly]

Entertainment media and the distance we have to go
By Adam Bink

A colleague brought up the interesting point the other week about which I’ve been pondering in the wake of the SNL anti-trans skit (we can’t embed the video here due to tech reasons, but you can see it in John’s post). He made the point that the entertainment media landscape had changed from years and years ago — GLAAD had essentially fulfilled their mission of getting more gay and lesbian characters on TV, showing loving gay/lesbian couples on TV, making gay struggles like those of Kurt Hummel on Glee accessible and sympathetic to the rest of America.

But then we have moments like this, where SNL has men with facial hair and dresses, meant to represent transgender women, in mock estrogen replacement commericals. And it reminds us we have a long way to go on the “T” side of “LGBT” in many, many facets of America.

The other thing I would say is that we have talked a lot about violent rhetoric contributing to politically-motivated violence here in America. I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about the brutal and often dangerous treatment of transgender detainees in immigration detention. Mocking and dehumanizing transgender people like this is the same thing- if you mock people as confused, stupid as silly, and laugh at them on TV, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that’s how they’re treated in real life.

GLAAD’s statement is below.

This Saturday, on an airing of Saturday Night Live, NBC (a subsidiary of Comcast) broadcast a dangerous and blatantly transphobic segment which they called ‘Estro-Maxxx’ – the punchline of which was the lives of countless transgender people across the country.

The piece was a mock commercial for estrogen replacement therapy and featured men with facial hair wearing dresses, meant to represent transgender women. This segment cannot be defended as “just a joke” because there was no “joke” to speak of. The attempted comedy of the skit hinges solely on degrading the lives and experiences of transgender women. Holding people up for ridicule simply on the basis of their identity fuels a dangerous and hurtful climate and puts people in danger, especially given how infrequently the media shines a fair and accurate light on the lives of transgender people.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation calls upon Comcast and NBC to apologize and remove the segment from Hulu and all future airings of the show.

[Jess]

Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem kiss at Sunday night's Academy Awards unseen by ABC audience






http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gayso...-audience.html