Let The Philadelphia Gay News Know......

they cannot continue to marginalize the lives of Black LGBT's in their paper any longer! As I said in my last post, I was angered that the Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) provided absolutely no coverage of the events that took place during Philadelphia's 7th annual Black Gay Pride celebration at the end of April. As expected however, there was a great deal of coverage on the Equality Forum in their newspaper, which took place the week after Black Pride. For those of you not familiar with Equality Forum, it is a big LGBT event, here in Philadelphia that takes place the last week of April/1st week of May and is primarily frequented by Caucasian LGBT's. I have no beef at all wtih Equality Forum, just with the PGN and what it chooses to report on.

It's this kind of lopsided coverage by the PGN on the lives of the Black LGBT community that continues to keep the lives and contributions we make to the larger community invisible. It's also saturated with racism, promoting White LGBT prominence, while feeding into Black LGBT marginalization. Black folks who are desperately seeking to find a positive image of themselves in the gay press, such as the PGN, are hard pressed to find one. I believe the gay press has a responsibility to cover the full spectrum of the LGBT experience, and the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council (BGMLC) is going to hold the PGN accountable for this.

Below I have pasted the letter that the BGMLC wrote to the PGN. If you know of anyone in the metro Philly area, send them a link to this post. We need all the community support we can get to put pressure on the PGN and to let them know that the Black LGBT community DOES have a powerful voice when we feel we're not being treated with respect. In case you want to send an email, write a letter or call the PGN, here is the contact information:

505 South 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 625-8501
Web addy: www.epgn.com
Editor: Marco Baker
email: marco@epgn.com
_______________________________________________
DATE: May 22, 2006
FROM: The Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council
TO: Marco Baker, Editor of the PGN
RE: PGN and marginal coverage of certain LGBT communities

Dear Mr. Baker:

As a collective of Black Gay men who live in the City of Philadelphia, we write to express our disappointment with the lack of diverse coverage in your newspaper, and, in particular, the 7th Annual Philadelphia Black Gay Pride events. We are concerned that celebratory events targeting racial and/or ethnic LGBT communities are regularly left invisible.

Beyond doubt, we appreciate the important coverage of Equality Forum. But as one example, there were four pieces dedicated to the event, with one piece featuring a full page of photographs in the May 12-18 issue. Though you wrote one short article and one slightly larger article about Philadelphia Black Gay Pride prior to the events, the actual events received no coverage.

Philadelphia Black Gay Pride featured many newsworthy and outstanding events; notably, a panel discussion on safety and civil rights concerns. The event brought together local and national civil rights and law enforcement organizations, and diverse members of our community. This standing room only event was moderated by Loraine Ballard Morrill, the News and Community Affairs Director for Clear Channel Communications Philadelphia. The lively panel concluded with the debut of a palm card that provided suggestions on what to do if stopped by the police and tips for reporting hate crimes and police maltreatment. Despite a press release and a follow-up phone call, the PGN missed an important opportunity to report on alliance building and collaborative work between entities that recognize and support the human nature of safety and civil rights concerns.

Unfortunately, this type of silence propels a dangerous message: positive, noteworthy events targeting our non-white LGBT community members are not important or newsworthy. Additionally, it helps maintain, support and uphold the idea of ‘black LGBT invisibility’ and the myth that homosexuality is a “white thing.” This is a racist message that homophobes often use to build and strengthen alliances and create arguments against gay marriage or any other civil rights issues that require the support of all communities, especially our straight allies.

Members of our communities must be careful to not provide ammunition to those seeking to limit or take away our fundamental rights. We cannot tolerate marginalization within the LGBT community. Hence, we demand that the PGN provide greater press coverage related to the diverse LGBT experiences occurring in Philadelphia, including LGBT communities of color. We believe that there are ideas and solutions on how to provide ample coverage. To this end, we, as members of the BGMLC, are willing to meet with the appropriate PGN staff to share our ideas on making your paper more inclusive of diverse LGBT experiences. We ask that you seek and incorporate these, and other, ideas so that politicians and local businesses can continue to use the PGN as an adequate source to fairly and effectively reach constituents and clients. We share your vision of an honest news source that works with integrity and professionalism to serve the LGBT community. With these changes, we believe that the PGN can serve as a model of fair, non-marginal “gay press.” Even still, it can exist another 30 years with deeper respect from Philadelphia’s racially and/or ethnically diverse LGBT communities.

We hope to receive a response to this letter by June 19, 2006. We can be contacted via email at phl_bgmlc@yahoo.com. If you respond by phone or postal mail, contact Lee Carson at (215) xxx-xxxx or by mail xxxxxx, Philadelphia, PA 19145. If we receive no response, we will be forced to believe that you are uninterested in this communal plea to uphold ideas of diversity and inclusion. We will organize a community response, including contacting businesses that advertise in the PGN to enlist their support in having a media source committed to covering the diverse experiences of our community.

In Anticipation,



Lee Carson, MSW
Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council