Risque, Part Deux

CBS, NBC Refuse Commercials From Gay Friendly Church

Here's more info on the refusal by CBS, NBC, and UPN to run an ad from the United Church of Christ expressing tolerance for gay and lesbian couples:

"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," said the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president.

"What's going on here?"

The ads had been scheduled to run from today until Dec. 26.

The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land, among others.

"We find it disturbing that the networks in question seem to have no problem exploiting gay persons through mindless comedies or titillating dramas, but when it comes to a church's loving welcome of committed gay couples, that's where they draw the line," says the Rev. Robert Chase, director of the UCC's communication ministry.

CBS and NBC's refusal to air the ad "recalls the censorship of the 1950s and 1960s, when television station WLBT in Jackson, Miss., refused to show people of color on TV," says Ron Buford, coordinator for the United Church of Christ identity campaign. Buford, of African-American heritage, says, "In the 1960s, the issue was the mixing of the races. Today, the issue appears to be sexual orientation. In both cases, it's about exclusion."

The UCC has a long reputation for welcoming gays and lesbians. Although its individual churches are mostly autonomous, many offer blessing services for same-sex couples. In 1972 it became the first mainstream denomination to ordain an openly gay man.

This is really quite startling. CBS is the network that brought us Richard Hatch, the gay man who won the first season of Survivor, and its parent, Viacom, owns Showtime, home to the almost-pornographic Queer as Folk and the lesbian-centricThe L Word. NBC makes hay with Will & Grace anchoring its Thursday lineup, and its Bravo channel is home to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and delivered Boy Meets Boy last summer, the first gay-themed reality show. Yet these two nets won't run an ad expressing tolerance for gays and lesbians, while Fox--whose only cracks at gay-themed programming have been deemed too exploitive to air, and whose parent company helped get the current, not-exactly-gay-friendly administration re-elected--and ABC Family, which you'd expect to reject the ad on "What about the children" grounds--are willing to air UCC's message. As Rev. Thomas asked, "What's going on here?"

Josh Marshall weighs in again here. You can watch the ad yourself at www.stillspeaking.com, though the site appears to be quite busy this morning. Perhaps that's a good sign that people are paying attention to this.