I il’
•' ■!
u
' u
i
L
lA M BDA
(gliblina Gay'A5§oclatlon,%w8lett^
Vo.l. No.
February 1980
5 fj
SEC-5 Planners Seeking Site
Tennessee planners of the fifth
annual Southeastern Conference of
Lesbians and Gay Men have set a
mid-February deadline for deciding
whether or not to hold the conference
in October.
A small group of women and men
have held monthly meetings in Nash
ville for over seven months, under
the umbrella of the Tennessee Gay
Coalition for Human Rights. The
major problem in planning the con
ference is finding a site.
According to a spokesperson, a
gay group that is forming at Memphis
State University has voiced interest
in sponsoring the conference.
Additional support has come from the
Memphis chapter of TGCHR, which con
sists of approximately 50 people.
At the fourth annual conference
held last April in Chapel Hill, N.C.
much support was voiced for holding
SEC-5 in an ERA-ratified state.
Conference participants from
Tennessee, most of whom were from
the Nashville area, volunteered to •
sponsor the conference.
Part of the difficulty in
obtaining a university facility
was that there are no gay student
groups at Vanderbilt and Tennessee
State University.
Vanderbilt University had been
pursued as the most probable site,
but a spokesperson said that the
group had recently received a
firm no from Vanderbilt.’*
"The precedent of the recent
U.S. District Court decision
involving recognition of a gay
student organization at a university
in the Memphis State school system
makes the formation of a gay student
group possible there,'* a spokesperson
said.
Quebec Fights Sexism In Ads
The Council on the Status of Women
has engineered a $433,000 anti-sexism
campaign from funds allocated by the
Quebec government. The campaign in
cludes a series of four television
commercials attacking sexist adver
tising.
The anti-sexism campaign has been
criticized by a major advertising
agency, J. Walter Thompson of
Montreal, which Was one of the
original four agencies bidding for
the account.
The Thompson agency withdrew from
the contest citing a conflict of in
terest. "As practitioners, we felt
we couldn't speak against ourselves,"
Raymonde Lavoie, director of French
creative services at JWT, said.
"Also, we disagree that advertis
ing creates stereotypes; it simply
confirms them."
The money to sponsor the campaign
is coming from advertisers because of
the two percent governmental tax on
broadcast commercials, according to
Advertising Age.
Feedback, a subsidiary of BCP
advertising of Montreal who won the
account, will not use a reverse role
model in its dampaign. "There will
be no men washing dishes," Therese
Sevigny, vice-president, said.
The first of the four series of
ads is currently running on all
Quebec French-language television
stations.
It shows small girls and boys
each playing with traditionally
sex-stereotyped toys, the boys
with trucks, the girls with dolls.
When the girls and boys exchange
toys the viewers are told;
"Children aren't responsible for
sexual discrimination—wc are."
The second ad will focus on
women's perception of themselves,
followed by sexism in advertising
and sexism at work. The ad cam
paign ends in June, .