aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Gay media today

Michael Demmons is disappointed with the offerings today on Logo, the new gay channel from Viacom via MTV.

In 1980-something (I can’t precisely recall anymore but it was the early 80s) I produced a weekly “Stonewall Minute” for the then “first” gay TV show in New York, “Our Times” with Vito Russo (nary a mention in his bio). It wasn’t the first and I don’t know on what grounds we called ourselves the first but we did. I recall the one that was the first, from the 70s, whose name I’ve now forgotten (something to do with Oz I think).

Our office was in the turreted northwest tower of the municipal building and we came out of WNYC (TV, sold off by Rudy Giuliani in 1997). It was great fun. I so wanted a gay network then, and confidently foresaw the day that it would come about.

Alas, now that it’s here (and it is here on my rural Georgia cable system, though I don’t subscribe) I’ve stopped wanting it. Reading about what will be on is only part of it:

Shows like “Momentum,” will focus on first-person experiences of real-life gay folk. Profiles of a gay rugby team, gay rappers, lesbian surfers, as well as gay Muslims and Latinos… Touted as a “reality series,” the channel will serve up “Open Bar,” an original series that follows one man’s coming-out process as he works to open a West Hollywood, Calif., gay bar.

My focus is really not banal shows (someone, I think it was In The Life, actually had a profile of what it was like to be a gay decorator). Rather it is that I don’t want to be ghettoized. Today what I want is for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to be part of the accepted mainstream of American life. And if a gay show is loved by America (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, first season) that’s even better.

So gay media today—once so important to me and those like me who left our small towns and headed for the city to find freedom and acceptance—is in a bind.

My last job in New York was with a gay internet company, Mediapolis. I interviewed one of the partners who started that company when I was there last week. Here’s Carl Pritzkat’s comment on gay media today.

NOTE: I’m still working on how to deliver the best video. When I find what I’m looking for, I’ll update links and remove this note!

1/20/06 UPDATE: Finally updated link to Google video.