Wasn't there a mainstream actress who had a comedy show that aired
internationally who, after "coming out", had her show cut? Ellen
someone from memory (I'm not a TV watcher myself).
Jay, there are others who are embarrassed about their nationality - my
whole identity changed when we had fascist Paulinne Hanson running for
government in Australia (with significnat support) who had an
explicitly anti-Asian outlook. Being an Australian living in an Asian
country was very humiliating then. The questions my Thai students
asked...
In solidarity,
Phil
On 27/01/2005, at 11:39 AM, Jay Lemke wrote:
>
> The postings on Remembrance of the oppression and murder of
> indigenous people in Australia, and of the holocaust, triggered a
> response in me to more current events.
>
> I read a report today that one of the first official and public acts
> of the new US Secretary of Education was to condemn a public
> television cartoon show for children that happened to include as a
> very minor element the existence of a lesbian couple in Vermont, where
> the show about making maple sugar was set.
>
> From the report:
>
> Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the "Sugartime!" episode
> does not fulfill the intent Congress had in mind for programming. By
> law, she said, any funded shows must give top attention to
> "research-based educational objectives, content and materials."
>
> "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the
> lifestyles portrayed in the episode," Spellings wrote in a letter sent
> Tuesday to Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBS.
>
> "Congress' and the Department's purpose in funding this programming
> certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to
> children, particularly through the powerful and intimate medium of
> television."
>
> In closing, she warned: "You can be assured that in the future the
> department will be more clear as to its expectations for any future
> programming that it funds."
>
> On the episode in question, "The fact that there is a family
> structure that is objectionable to the Department of Education is not
> at all the focus of the show, nor is it addressed in the show," said
> Sloan of PBS.
>
> -----------------------------
>
> Vermont, of course, is a state that validates same-sex civil unions.
> The current government of the United States however does not seem
> ready to include in its educational objectives either the truth about
> the diversity of human relationships or tolerance for all social
> minorities in American society. I wonder how people would feel if this
> head of the Education department made the same objection to including
> a passing view of an inter-racial couple?
>
> I am tired of feeling ashamed to be an American. I am very, very
> angry that this kind of outright, public, and official bigotry can be
> at all tolerated by anyone in this country, regardless of political
> party or personal religious belief.
>
> This is how fascism begins. And this is how a nation loses its right
> to the loyalty of its people.
>
> JAY.
>
>
>
>
> Jay Lemke
> Professor
> University of Michigan
> School of Education
> 610 East University
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109
>
> Tel. 734-763-9276
> Email. JayLemke@UMich.edu
> Website. www.umich.edu/~jaylemke
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