No LGBT Programs on Air America

April 19, 2004

Air America Radio
3 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Attn: Mark Walsh, CEO


Dear Mr. Walsh:

I began listening to Air America from Day One and I have enjoyed listening to the liberal viewpoints expressed on it. However, there is one type of programming that is missing from your airwaves: a program that is exclusively devoted to the LGBT community.

I was a regular listener each Sunday to the gay programming offered by the Pacifica station WBAI, here in New York. But the quality and the scope were limited. When the show was called The Gay Show, the focus was mainly on white gay men. And when the show was renamed Out FM, with different hosts, it went the other way, focusing on women and people of color, almost exclusively. I would have much preferred gay programming that was much more inclusive and balanced.

Air America has the golden opportunity to develop a program that addresses the interests and the concerns of the LGBT community in an entertaining, informative, and provocative way. LGBT people are visible in all areas of media. Discussions about gays in the military, gay marriage, gay parenting, gays in the workplace are no longer rarities. Air America can help further such discussions and eradicate misconceptions about LGBT people. I don't expect Rush Limbaugh or the other right-wing talk hosts to do justice to these or other topics that are relevant to the LGBT community.

Right now, there is room for such programming, especially on the weekend, when much of the schedule is occupied by repeat broadcasts of the weekday shows. A weekly, two-hour show on your network would reach tens of thousands of LGBT people throughout the country, creating another venue for them to find out what's going on in LGBT communities here and abroad. I see such a show having not only serious discussions about issues, but also book and movie reviews, commentary, satire, remote broadcasts, and national and world news roundups. For example, this year I was a judge for the Lambda Literary Awards, in the Gay Men's Mystery category. One discussion a program could have is the state of gay and lesbian literature and the role the Lammys play in promoting it. There are so many gay and lesbian writers, historians, artists, actors, civic and community leaders that it would be impossible to run out of people to bring on to the show. Another feature could be a brief segment on a gay or lesbian historical figure, event, or place. I could go on for pages suggesting possible program content.

I'm hoping that this broadcasting venture called Air America will succeed so that the program idea that I am proposing will come to fruition. The national LGBT community would be the beneficiary and it would truly make Air America a beacon of liberalism.

Sincerely yours,

Charles Michael Smith


Note: I never received a response. Although there were gay and lesbian hosts on Air America such as Rachel Maddow, there never was a specific show about LGBT issues. WWRL, Air America's New York affiliate, after the demise of Air America, did later broadcast LGBT shows five days a week under the umbrella title "Equality Pride Radio."

The Black Press's Role in Homophobia

The following is a letter-to-the-editor that I wrote (but never sent) to Elinor Tatum, publisher and editor-in-chief of the New York Amsterdam News regarding an article by then executive editor Jamal Watson about the promised participation of gays and lesbians at the tenth anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. The letter, dated October 27, 2005, underscored the lack of consistent coverage of gay and lesbian issues in the black press (print and electronic).

Dear Ms. Tatum:

Jamal Watson's article "Ten Years Later...Another Million" (October 13-19, 2005) is a prime example of the poor journalism that is practiced at the Amsterdam News with regard to gay and lesbian issues. At the tail end of the article, he wrote: "For months, the organizers of the event have been dogged by allegations that Black gays and lesbians would be excluded from the gathering. In an interview with the Amsterdam News, Minister Louis Farrakhan dismissed the charges , saying that Black gays and lesbians would not be denied a role." Nowhere in the piece does Watson quote anyone from the black gay and lesbian community. He takes Farrakhan at his word.
Later I heard an interview with a representative from the National Black Justice Coalition on "The Laura Flanders Show" (on Air America Radio) say that black gays and lesbians were denied access to the podium. So what Farrakhan said was a lie. But I doubt the Am/News will follow up on the story.
I think the NBJC should expand its campaign against homophobic black preachers and include the black press which is as complicit in the perpetuation of homophobia in the black community as the black church. The Am/News should be at the top of the list of publications targeted in a letter and e-mail blitz. A picket line shouldn't be overlooked either.
It's time that the voices of black gays and lesbians are consistently heard from in the black press. As the black lesbian poet Audre Lorde once put it: "There is no hierarchy of oppression." Homophobia is just as bad as racism. Both stem from hatred and ignorance.

Author's Note: When John Davis, an openly gay man, was the executive editor of the Amsterdam News (for a short time), he wrote an editorial supporting the passage of a gay rights bill in the New York City Council. This would be around 1983. Since then I have not seen any pro-gay editorials in the paper.