The Republic of T. Archives

Welcome once again to W’s America, folks. Honestly, I’m not sure how long we’re gonna make it here. The news isn’t good.

First, there was the suicide prevention program that a federal agency forced to remove the words “gay,” “lesbian” and “transgendered” from the title of a workshop.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that is funding the conference on Feb. 28 in Portland, Ore. On the program, at least until recently, is a talk titled “Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals.”

Everyone seems to agree the topic is important. Studies have found that the suicide risk among people in these groups is two to three times higher than the average risk.

So it came as a surprise to Ron Bloodworth — a former coordinator of youth suicide prevention for Oregon and one of three specialists leading the session — when word came down from SAMHSA project manager Brenda Bruun that the contractor running the program should omit the four words that described precisely what the session was about.

Bloodworth was told it would be acceptable to use the term “sexual orientation.” But that did not make sense to him. “Everyone has a sexual orientation,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “But this was about gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.”

The title rewrite was one of several requested changes. Another was to add a session on faith-based suicide prevention, said Mark Weber, a spokesman for SAMHSA, who said he believed the brouhaha was all a misunderstanding.

Yeah. It was a misunderstanding alright. Frankly, I’ve read the explantion and I’m not buying that it was a misunderstanding. Like the guy said everyone has a “sexual orientation.” It seems pretty clear that changing the name changes the nature of the program from being one that specificallyl focuses on the needs of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders related to suicide prevention.

My take? Simple. These people, and by that I mean the Bush administration and its supporters, would rather we didn’t exist. They’re in a position now to remove the words “gay,” “lesbian,” and “bisexual” from a workshop, and I believe they’d like to erase us too, if they could.

The second item is just as depressing. This morning, the chief of PBS stepped down from her position. Coincidence? Probably not.

Pat Mitchell, the Public Broadcasting Service chief under fire for spending public money on a cartoon show that also featured a real-life lesbian couple, will step down when her contract expires in June 2006.

Mitchell, the nonprofit network’s fifth president and chief executive officer, also faced significant fund-raising challenges.

She drew recent criticism from both liberals and conservatives for “Postcards From Buster,” in which the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, traveled to Vermont - a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. Though the focus was on farm life and maple sugaring, the episode, entitled “Sugartime,” featured an actual lesbian couple.

Newly appointed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings contended that the episode did not fulfill the intent Congress had in mind for programming and said many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles.

Mitchell, 62, who joined PBS in 2000, told PBS managers at its annual meeting Monday that she would not seek a third three-year term when her contract expired in June 2006. In a statement to the media, Mitchell made no reference to the “Buster” controversy.

I’ll just bet the “Buster” controversy had everything to do with it. I’ll also bet that the next president of the network will be someone who can be counted on to make sure that gay & lesbian families do not appear on the network under any circumstances. The video bloggers are on the case, and from what I’ve seen of their reports, it doesn’t look good for the “Buster” show, and maybe even for the “Arthur” show, and probably for the network itself.

It’s pretty clear, folks. They don’t want to see us. They don’t want to hear us. They would prefer that we just didn’t exit.

They want us to disappear. And, for the moment, they’re in charge.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2005 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Gay Rights, Politics, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.