Rooney Suspension Sheds Light on Status of Blacks, Gays in TV

Progress by minority groups in gaining equal treatment and justice need not be measured only by looking at ballot box results. Television, that almighty indicator of who’s in and who’s out, is another telling gauge.

Andy Rooney, of “60 Minutes” fame, has recently come under fire for derogatory remarks made about gays as well as, and more conspicuously, for remarks made about blacks. Even though he has denied making the racist comments regarding blacks, he was suspended for three months without pay by CBS news.

Tellingly, his earlier remarks aimed at gays, and not deniable since they were made over the air on a CBS special in December, met with no such response from network bigwigs.

It is oddly fitting that two such varied responses by CBS to two Rooney slurs should occur just as some are questioning the appropriateness of the new cable offering “Secret Passions,” a gay-oriented soap opera both produced and set in Orange County. At the very least, TV’s inconsistent manner in dealing with the two minorities is revealed.

Images on television do much to shape our views of groups we have little or no contact with. Opinions of gay men and lesbians, who are still underrepresented on the air, have often been forged out of ignorance.

While blacks have made heavy inroads in the effort to bring varying images to the tube, gays have had less success. The television industry has done next to nothing, for instance, to correct the omission of various worthy contributions made by gay men and lesbians to America’s cultural history.

How many TV productions on the lives of poet Walt Whitman or on the first native-born star of the U.S. stage, Charlotte Cushman, have you seen? What TV Western has ever shown that Native Americans held an enlightened and accepting view of homosexuality?

Nor has television done much to show accurate and varied portrayals of gays in the present. The few attempts to go beyond stereotypes are invariably met with heavy resistance.

A recent “thirtysomething” episode that featured a frank portrayal of two men in a dating situation was met with strong protest by groups on the religious right. A few days later, several sponsors bowed to the pressure and withdrew support from the show.

In the real world, the list of gay-oriented groups in Orange County alone indicates concerns and interests very similar to those of the general population. Too lengthy to incorporate here, the list includes a gay bowling league, a group for gay alcoholics, a gay parents group, gay Mormons, and even a group of gay owners and admirers of classic autos.

Given the incredible variety existing within the gay and lesbian community, it would take several shows offering gays as characters to even begin to portray the real diversity of gays. But not surprisingly, opposition to the fledgling gay soap, “Secret Passions,” which is unique in its genre, has already begun to take shape.

Those who fight the airing of these types of shows, aside from showing disrespect for the First Amendment, are fighting portrayals of the real America and are choosing ignorance over fact.

With groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, gays are just beginning to find ways to effectively fight for honest and varied portrayals on the small screen. But as the Rooney suspension indicates, black power, on the tube at least, has already arrived.

JAN-AUSTIN FOUCHER, Anaheim