‘Nightline’ Set to Finally Air Gay Life Series

ABC is hoping the third time’s the charm for a five-part “Nightline” series on gay and lesbian life, which is scheduled to air this week after being twice postponed because of breaking news, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The programs came about when “Nightline” anchor Ted Koppel and executive producer Tom Bettag realized that over the years the show’s coverage of gay life had been largely limited to acts of violence against gays, AIDS or “the first five rows in the Gay Pride parade,” Koppel said. “What struck us is we never really talk about the vast majority of gays in this country who lead quiet, conventional, uninteresting ... lives. This is a series that focuses on everyone else.”

But the title, “A Matter of Choice?,” has disturbed some in the gay and lesbian community who think there is nothing optional about being gay. Last summer, when the series was announced, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation complained that the title perpetuates an “outdated but still harmful stereotype.”

Koppel, whose show will expand to an hour for an extended stretch beginning this summer, isn’t backing down. “I realize I may have offended some people by insisting on that title,” he said in an interview, but in his reporting and throughout the series, “the word ‘choice’ comes up again and again and again.” The question, he said, “summarizes the essence of the dilemma gay people face in this country.”

Koppel said of the gay community, “This is a series about them, not a series for them.... There is not much in this series that will surprise anybody who is gay, and a lot that will surprise anybody who is not.”

The series starts tonight at a retirement community for gays and lesbians near Bradenton, Fla., where senior citizens talk about when they discovered they were gay and the consequences in their lives. Tuesday, the program moves to Roanoke, Va., the site of a gay hate-crime murder, and subsequent soul-searching by the community. The city intrigued Koppel, however, because he found it both staunchly Southern Baptist, “where being gay really did mean being out of the ordinary,” and “surprisingly tolerant.... People are allowed to live relatively normal lives there as gays, without being harassed.” Koppel explores the issue of whether being gay is a choice with gay and lesbian teens, Roanoke religious leaders, and gay and straight families.

Despite concerns about the title, GLAAD news media director Cathy Renna called the series “unprecedented” for showing rarely seen elements of the gay and lesbian community. The installment on older gays, she said, “gives voice to a part of the community that is invisible.”

Koppel will conduct a live town meeting from Roanoke to end the series Friday, and Renna is curious to see how different it potentially will be than if that event had aired in September. The topic of gay adoption and the Catholic Church scandal have come to the forefront since then, and “issues around discrimination and hate violence are now more universally understood” because of the September terrorist attacks, she said.

Separately, Koppel said he and producers are still working out the format of the new half-hour addition, “Nightline Close-Up,” which the show will produce to fill time between Bill Maher’s departure this summer and Jimmy Kimmel’s arrival in January. The program will be taped, unless there is breaking news, and will probably emphasize stories about “people who normally don’t make the news. Some of the best programs we do don’t deal with famous people, but people who were on the periphery of famous events.”

The more feature-oriented half-hour, Koppel said, “offers us a chance to demonstrate the versatility of the ‘Nightline’ correspondents and producers. It’s nice to be needed.”

Kimmel was hired after ABC failed to lure David Letterman from CBS, a move that would also have displaced “Nightline.” Koppel said he met Kimmel for the first time last week at ABC’s fall schedule presentation to advertisers. “I’ve never been particularly concerned about what follows us,” Koppel said, adding that Kimmel “seems like a very funny guy, and I’m sure he’ll do a good job.”