Notwithstanding the recalcitrant opinion of a hard-line cleric about to kick the bucket, a more influential voice in the American mainstream has spoken out to normalize the gay marriage idea:
<blockquote>At Least One Program Runs Toward Controversy By ALESSANDRA STANLEY <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/arts/television/21watch.html> Published: February 21, 2005
Patty Bouvier, Marge's chain-smoking, "MacGyver"-loving sister, came out of the cartoon closet on last night's episode of "The Simpsons." The episode was preceded by a warning that because the show contained discussion of same-sex marriage, "parental discretion" was advised.
Gay characters are not new to television, or to "The Simpsons," for that matter (Montgomery Burns's doting assistant, Waylon Smithers, collects Malibu Stacy dolls and vacations at men's singles resorts.)
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Patty decided to wed her girlfriend, Veronica, after the town of Springfield legalized gay marriage to boost tourism and Homer Simpson became an ordained minister over the Internet to marry gay couples for cash.
The creators of "The Simpsons" had kept the identity of the gay character a secret, but the surprise was not so much who turned out to be gay (Patty's sensibilities were well established) but how the show would make fun of the issue. The writers chose to tweak every stakeholder in the debate, from evangelical preachers on the right to retailers and advertisers who champion gays as much for their "disposable income" as their civil rights.
The town even created its own theme song, sung to the tune of Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song," "Gay-o, it's O.K.-o, Tie the knot and spend all your dough."
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"The Simpsons" also took a dig at its own network, Fox, by having Homer call Fox and get a recording that asks callers for reality show proposals with the motto, "Your half-baked ideas are all we've got."
The episode was not the funniest in "Simpsons" history, but it was a tonic at a moment when television seems increasingly humorless and tame -- fearful of advertiser boycotts by the religious right and fines from the Federal Communications Commission.</blockquote>
Meanwhile, the Royal Navy says that it will be working with Stonewall to actively recruit gay man and lesbians and running recruitment ads in gay magazines and newspapers:
<blockquote>Britain's Navy Is Encouraging Gays and Lesbians to Enlist By SARAH LYALL <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/international/europe/21cnd-britain.html> Published: February 21, 2005
LONDON, Feb. 21 - Five years after Britain lifted its ban on gays in the military, the Royal Navy has begun actively encouraging gays and lesbians to enlist and has pledged to make life easier for them when they do.
The navy announced today that it had asked Stonewall, a group that lobbies for gay rights, to help it develop better strategies for recruiting and retaining gay and lesbian sailors. It said, too, that one such strategy may well be to advertise for recruits in gay magazines and newspapers.
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The partnership with Stonewall, Commodore [Paul] Docherty [director of naval life management] said, will help "make more steps toward improving the culture and attitude within the service as a whole, so gays who are still in the closet feel that much more comfortable about coming out."
The new effort is a sign of how much the official attitude in the British navy has changed. Until a European court ruled in 1999 that Britain's ban on gays in the military violated European human-rights laws, the navy, along with the rest of the military, followed a no-exceptions policy of dismissing service men and women who were found to be gay, often after long and intrusive investigations.
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But after the court ruling, it had no choice but to put aside its doubts and reverse its policy. Beginning in 2000, the military said that gays would no longer be prohibited from serving. It also stopped monitoring its recruits' sex lives, saying that as long as it did not intrude into the workplace, sexuality should not be an issue one way or another.
Far from effecting a cataclysmic change, the new policy appeared to be something of an anticlimax. Recently, gay men and women in the British services have lived and fought in Iraq alongside heterosexuals -- and Americans -- without problem, according to military officials.
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Monday's announcement comes at a time when gays have benefited from a number of new laws in Britain, including one that makes it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of workers' sexuality. Last year, Parliament passed the Civil Partnership Act, which gives marriage-style rights to British gays who have registered as couples.
The navy has traditionally been the friendliest of the three armed services toward gays, and so far it is the only one to announce an active recruitment and retention effort. But the entire military is subject to the new civil partnership legislation. Starting in the fall, gay couples in the military who have registered under the act will be allowed to apply for housing in quarters previously reserved for married couples.
Stonewall currently advises about 90 employers in Britain, some of them big companies, in how better to recruit and treat gay and lesbian workers. It is this program that the navy has signed up for.
"Increasingly, organizations are recognizing that having well-trained and highly committed staff who feel comfortable in the workplace is highly important," said Alan Wartle, a spokesman for Stonewall.
Mr. Wartle said that Stonewall would advise the navy on a host of practical matters with the underlying intention of changing attitudes.
"It's about having a range of policies and also about the more intangible element, the cultural change," he said. "We're very encouraged that senior leadership is supporting this; it sends a message down the organization that they're serious."
Commodore Docherty said that one likely step for the navy would be to begin advertising in gay publications, as part of a general recruitment effort.
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Commodore Docherty said that the navy was trying to send a clear message:
"The fact that we are making this high-level commitment will hopefully show people that it's not just empty words when we talk about diversity and opportunity, but are actually taking action to do something about it."</blockquote>
The US military has not gone so far, but the rate of discharge for gay men and lesbians has gone down:
<blockquote><http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?section=5&record=1875> February 13, 2005 Number of Gays Discharged From Services Drops Again The New York Times by John Files
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 -- The Defense Department said Friday that it discharged 653 service members last year for being gay, down 15 percent from 2003. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the rate of discharges has dropped nearly 50 percent.
The number of men and women discharged from the military because they were discovered to be gay, or because they revealed their sexuality, has fallen three years in a row, the Pentagon's statistics show. The Pentagon started keeping track of the figures in 1997.
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The total of such discharges in 2003 was 770; that compares with 885 in 2002 and 1,227 in 2001. </blockquote>
Such changes in the military policy and culture are likely to clarify political differences among gay men and lesbians. -- Yoshie
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