More ad drops for LauraClick for details on Lambda Publications Night at the Theater to benefit the medical expenses of one of our delivery women who is living with cancer.
In a conversation with StopDrLaura.com, Skytel has acknowledged that a flood of anti-Schlessinger comments had factored in the company's announcement that Skytel would stop advertising during all talk radio programming.
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"Absolutely" was the response of Skytel's public relations manager, Mary Margaret Johnson, when asked if customer outrage over Schlessinger's anti-gay commentary had "factored heavily" in the company's decision. Johnson also confirmed that a number of Skytel corporate accounts had canceled due to Skytel's advertising during Schlessinger's show. Johnson said that Skytel had been "inundated" with messages of concern regarding Schlessinger's anti-gay comments.
In a prepared statement provided to StopDrLaura.com, however, Skytel was careful to point out that it would also pull advertising from all talk radio. "That media buy concluded nearly a month ago, and Skytel is no longer purchasing advertising on talk radio," the statement said.
Time and Time.com have published a counterpoint essay by Joan M. Garry, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, addressing the impact of talk-show host Laura Schlessinger's attacks on the lesbian and gay community. In her July 3 Time interview, Schlessinger defended her anti-gay comments—including her use of words like "deviant" and "biological error" to describe lesbians and gay men—and claimed that she has cried in response to the resulting controversy. "When parents of a gay child hear the words error and deviant in the same sentence as gay, it's easy for me as a mother to imagine what conclusions they draw," Garry writes in the July 17 issue of Time. "If Laura has 'cried more at times than I would like to admit' in response to lesbians' and gays' speaking out against her, she has nothing on the misery she has caused us with her virulent and prejudicial denouncements."
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The London Times July 9 has an interesting take on money and lesbian stars: "It pays to love women in Hollywood. Gay and bisexual actresses are earning substantially more than their heterosexual counterparts, according to a new study of earning power in the United States. The research conducted by the University of Maryland took nearly four years to complete and reflects diverse trends in the pattern of American pay. The findings suggest that Hollywood women who love women—such as Drew Barrymore, Angelina Jolie and Anne Heche—are rising higher and faster to the top of the entertainment business because they are better qualified for career advancement and are more determined to succeed in their careers than many 'straight' men and women preoccupied with children. Gay American women in their mid-forties earn over a third more on average than those in heterosexual relationships. Gay men, however, earn 14% less than heterosexual men, partly because many choose more 'tolerant' areas of work, such as the caring professions."
Martina Navratilova may have lost out on another Wimbledon title, but the London Free Press says she still may stay un-retired long enough to beat Billie Jean King's record of 20 Wimbledon titles. "Entering this year's event, her record showed nine singles, six doubles and three mixed doubles titles, one short of Billie Jean's total," the paper said, "She gave it a valiant effort to tie the record in the millennium year, but was forced to bow out of the tournament on Wednesday when she and South Africa's Mariaan de Swardt ran into the Venus and Serena Williams tornado and lost in three sets in the quarter-finals."
Associated Press reports that "A straight-talking book for teen-agers dealing with adultery, euthanasia, and homosexuality bested publishing phenomenon Harry Potter on Friday for a literary prize. Postcards From No Man's Land took the Carnegie Medal for its 65-year-old author Aidan Chambers, a former monk whose work is aimed at those age 14 and up.
Barbra Streisand reportedly will perform for a $50,000-er couple fundraiser for Al Gore Aug. 17 ( during the Dem convention ) in Los Angeles, reports Variety. Now that Vegas Y2K show looks like a good deal.
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The annual Equality Illinois Celebrity Pie Toss is Wed., July 19, 6 p.m., at Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted, ( 773 ) 477-7173.
Good luck to all of the Chicago lesbigay singers heading to the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses GALA Choruses Fest 2000, July 22-30 in Calif.
