Gay and Lesbian Fund-Raiser to Tap Hollywood Power Players

A year ago, several hundred of some of Hollywood’s most powerful executives gathered at the home of a Walt Disney Studios executive in a groundbreaking effort to raise money for a national gay and lesbian civil rights organization. That first step will be repeated Sept. 13, only on a bigger scale and at a soundstage at Sony Pictures Studios.

The event, on behalf of the Washington-based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, is being underwritten in part by donations from the David Geffen Foundation, the Barry Diller Foundation, Fox Inc., Largo Entertainment, Sony Pictures, the Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros.

Invitations to the $300-per-person dinner have been mailed to 3,500 persons. Last year’s guest list included studio chiefs, high-powered entertainment attorneys and talent agents, and they are expected to be in the audience this year for a show that will feature singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge.

Show-business attorney Alan Hergott, one of the fund-raiser’s key organizers, said the political climate this year has made plans for the event even more urgent. Last year, the event was held as the entertainment industry faced mounting criticism from some gays and lesbians that Hollywood depicts them in stereotypical and negative ways. This year, Hollywood is under fire from many among the religious right for not dramatizing “family values” in a positive light.

Hergott, a partner in the firm of Bloom, Dekom and Hergott, said he hears a lot about “family values” from one presidential candidate. Meanwhile, he said, “We’re still waiting for more help in fighting AIDS, there are growing numbers of hate crimes against gay people, we still face discrimination on child custody and adoption issues, and gays in the military are not being treated equally.”

At the event, a special award will be present to MCA Inc., the parent of Universal Pictures, for its new policy of awarding health benefits to all domestic partnerships, regardless of sex or marital status.