On the threshold of going television, radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination have apparently reached a kind of cease-fire accord, after GLAAD expressed concerns the TV show would make too much room for anti-gay bias.
Schlessinger has attacked homosexuality as destructive to Western civilization, as well as advocating "reparative therapy", a belief and program that says homosexuals can be "reverted" to heterosexuality.
Schlessinger and GLAAD met on Feb. 14 at Paramount Studios, which will produce the TV show. Paramount promised the show would include a variety of viewpoints regarding homosexuality, according to Variety.
GLAAD executive director Joan M. Garry says on the group's Web site that GLADD's concern over Schlessinger "is three-pronged. Her incendiary rhetoric continues to threaten people in our community; her reliance on information sources that advocate so-called 'reparative therapy' and obstruction of basic civil rights nurtures an anti-gay bias in her audience; and her refusal to acknowledge reasonable, differing views effectively blinds her sizable audience to the truth of our lives.''
But the group says now they are pleased with the agreement on the TV show content, in addition to press attention to the matter. Variety says the two sides will keep talking on it. The show is scheduled to debut in fall 2000.
