Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Jun 25, 2010

Friday, June 25, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc

In celebration of SC Black Pride, I want to focus on a television which really didn't get it's due - Noah's Arc:

From Wikipedia:

Set in Los Angeles, the show features the lives of four black gay friends dealing with everyday trials, tribulations, triumphs and tragedies. Noah's Arc premiered on October 19, 2005, on the Logo television network. The series was Logo's most popular program. Season 1 was filmed in Los Angeles, and Season 2 was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The show rose from humble beginnings. The pilot was produced independently; and, to assist in funding each episode, the show was originally envisioned as a DVD subscription series. During the pilot filming, Rodney Chester's (who portrays Alex) own truck was used for the actors to have their make-up, hair, and wardrobe fittings. Logo pursued the series after the pilot was well received at film festivals, independent circuits, and special screenings. Some scenes from the original pilot were either re-shot or removed for airing on Logo. The original pilot is included in the Season 1 DVD release. The opening credits theme song is "Remember The Love" (Samba Mix) by Adriana Evans.

In the summer of 2008, BET J, the spin-off cable television channel of BET, showed all episodes of Noah's Arc. The creator of the show Patrik-Ian Polk announced the broadcast schedule via MySpace. He hopes that the episodes air again in primetime on the BET network.

Shortly after the Season 2 finale cliffhanger aired, LOGO announced the show's cancellation. Surprised by the negative reaction of the show's fans, the network stated that the program may return if the film was a success. At the time of LOGO's announcement, however, none of the cast had yet been contracted for the film. "Noah's Arc" was said to be the network's highest-rated original series. The film had an opening weekend per screen average of $30,336 and narrowly came second for top per screen average by the Clint Eastwood/Angelina Jolie film Changeling, which opened in limited release the same weekend and averaged $32,601. Theaters playing the film opening weekend reported, by mid-December, it had taken just over $532,000 at the US box office, even though the film received little or no mainstream marketing support and never played on more than seven screens at once during its seven-week theatrical run. Despite the success of the film, LOGO failed to bring the program back to air and was criticized by African-American and LGBT communities as it represented a needed diversity in mainstream media.

AFA's attack on 10-year-old and family gets them nowhere and other Friday midday news briefs

Fayetteville, Arkansas, to American Family Association: “No thank you!” - This what you get when you pick on 10-year-old children and their families.

The gay 'Brady Bunch' family - A much needed focus on African-American lgbt families

Screw this: When it comes to tools, it's nuts how many will bolt - Bear in mind this poll was taken by World Net Daily, the SAME publication which pushes the theory that President Obama is an illegal alien who had sex in a limo with a crazy white man while he and Damien Thorne was plotting to take over the world while messily eliminating everyone who got clued in to their secret while at the same time tricking children into being gay by noting the fact that there was only three female Smurfs present in Smurf village with a whole bunch of male Smurfs while . . .

At Chicago gay pride parade, some troops will be out and proud - Too bad I'm going to miss this.

Situation on 'The View' demonstrates need for Black prides

As many of you know, it's Black Pride week here in South Carolina.

Now rather than go into detail in terms of why black prides are needed for the lgbt community, allow me to point out an incident which I think best suits the situation - a Call To Action by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation):

On the June 22 broadcast of ABC's daytime talk show "The View," host Sherri Shepherd and guest host D.L. Hughley perpetuated dangerous myths about African American gay and bisexual men.

While discussing the FDA's ban that prevents gay and bisexual men from donating blood, Shepherd and Hughley communicated misinformation about the causes of increased HIV rates among African American women and used the phrase "down low" to describe men who have sex with men but publicly identify as heterosexual.

Here are excerpts from a transcript of the segment:

Hughley: When you look at the prevalence of HIV in the African American Community, it's primarily young women who are getting it from men who are on the down low. That's the thing.

Shepherd: The down low is black men who've been going out. They are having sex with men and they're not telling their girlfriends or their wives that they're gay and their husbands, as well. And it's very prevalent with African American women because they come home and have sex with their wives or their girlfriends. And they're not telling them that they're gay.

Shepherd: It's so big in the Black community with women because they're having unprotected sex with men who have been having sex with... with men.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), however, has debunked the dangerous myth that Shepherd and Hughley cited on the program. Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention talked about his research to NNPA News in October 2009. Fenton said that the CDC "has looked to see what proportion of [HIV] infections is coming from male partners who are bisexual and found there are actually relatively few," and goes on to attribute most infections to other factors.

Read Fenton's entire interview.

I applaud GLAAD for shining a light on this awful display of ignorance by Hughley and Sheppard. I don't think their ignorance about the situation is intentional. Rather it's indicative of why we need more visible lgbts of color.

That's why black prides are important - to encourage and inspire more lgbts of color to be visible, take their rightful places in the lgbt community and also take ownership of their stories.

When you are not allowed to speak for yourself - and many lgbts of color do not have this right in the black community - others take it upon themselves to speak for you and in the case of Hughley and Sheppard, they get your story wrong.

GLAAD is encouraging everyone to take action:

Call on "The View" to issue an on-air apology and correct Sherri Shepherd and D.L. Hughley's misrepresentation of African American gay & bisexual men. This program reaches millions of viewers and ABC must ensure that its platforms are not used to perpetuate dangerous falsehoods that put our community in harm's way.

ABC Contacts:

Brad Jamison, Vice President Corporate Initiatives
ABC Television Network
818-460-6120
Brad.Jamison@abc.com

Julie Hoover, Corporate Communications Vice President
ABC Television Network
(212) 456-6641
julie.t.hoover@abc.com

Bill Geddie, Executive Producer
ABC "The View"
(212) 456-0910
bill.geddie@abc.com

GLAAD Contacts:

Cindi Creager
Director of National News
(646) 871-8019
creager@glaad.org

Richard Ferraro
Director of Public Relations
(646) 871-8011
ferraro@glaad.org