A Letter From The President
Visibility Means A Lot
Bob Dorr, PFLAG Omaha
Posted on January 23, 2006
The year was 1958, the place was Ft. Smith, Ark., and I was a young newspaper reporter. Central High School in Little Rock had been forcibly desegregated the year before, but Arkansas was still mostly segregated. Public restrooms and water fountains were marked “colored” or “white.”
My first week on the job at the Ft. Smith Times-Record, I interviewed a black man to get comments for a news story. I hung up the phone and suggested to the managing editor that the newspaper’s photographer take the man’s picture to accompany my story.
The managing editor said, “You can quote him in your story. But we won’t take his picture. This newspaper doesn’t publish pictures of Negroes.” I didn’t ask for a reason and the managing editor didn’t offer one. Certainly, not picturing black people made them less visible.
A year later, my wife and I and our year-old son left Ft. Smith and moved to Omaha, where I joined The World-Herald’s news staff. I don’t know when the Ft. Smith newspaper began picturing black people—probably when the University of Arkansas started recruiting black football players.
Invisibility is something that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people know all about. In years past, and even today, the unspoken message to GLBT people is this: Stay in the closet, stay invisible and you will be left alone.
That hurtful message doesn’t work as much these days. Increasing numbers of GLBTs are taking the risk of coming out. As the GLBT community has gained visibility, Mass Media have taken notice. More television shows have gay characters—although sometimes those characters are stereotypes instead of real people.
Now, all at once, several new mainstream films deal with gay and transgender issues in a very realistic way. Everyone is talking about “Brokeback Mountain,” whose main characters are two cowboys who develop a strong love for each other. Betty and I saw “Brokeback Mountain” the day it opened in Omaha. It is excellent—one of the most thought-provoking movies we have seen. “Brokeback Mountain” led the Golden Globes with four prizes including best dramatic film and the directing honor for Ang Lee.
The Associated Press said in its story on the Golden Globes: “It was a triumphant night for films dealing with homosexuality and transsexuality. Along with the victories for ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ acting honors went to Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery in ‘Transamerica’ and to Philip Seymour Hoffman as gay author Truman Capote in ‘Capote.’”
Visibility for GLBTs—blessed visibility--has taken a giant step forward.
In his recent state of the city speech, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey said, “The great city of the future will be a place where people of all races, religions and sexual orientations are comfortable and welcome.”
Yes, I know. Not everyone agrees with Fahey on the sexual orientations part. But increasing numbers do agree. And the new outpouring of acclaimed films with their gay and transgender themes will help bring more people over to our side.
D. MORITZ, A LONGTIME FRIEND OF OMAHA PFLAG, will speak at our Feb. 9 support-program meeting. D has a paid position on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln staff as student involvement assistant director for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and ally programs and services. We will reverse our normal meeting format and will have the program at 7 p.m. with support time following at 8 p.m. The meeting will be at our usual place, Mead Hall at the west end of First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St.
A WEALTH OF GOOD IDEAS that could help Omaha PFLAG become a better chapter came from the lips of Elizabeth Brown of PFLAG’s national office at a Jan. 14 training. Twenty people came to the training, a nice-sized group.
At public appearances, for example, we might ask our panelists to stand for their opening remarks, because standing can be more effective than sitting. Some other tips: If seated, sit on the edge of the chair when speaking. Crossing your ankles is OK, but don’t cross your legs. Make eye contact, either with people in the audience or with specific places in the room.
Elizabeth suggested trying this during support time at our meetings: Instead of going one-by-one in order around the circle, open it up by asking who would like to speak. I might try this at our next meeting.
She presented many other suggestions. We all tend to get stuck in ruts. It was good to hear some new ideas.
SOMETIME SOON, we will begin offering this monthly newsletter to our members and supporters in electronic form to reduce postage costs. Don’t panic if you don’t own a computer. We will continue to offer the printed newsletter for those who prefer to keep receiving it that way.
One way or the other, we want to stay in touch with you.
Bob Dorr,
Omaha PFLAG president
