Oitblina GayA§§ociation.]S[ew§lettei:*
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Vol. k No.
April/May 1980
FCC Acts Favorably On Petition
The Federal Commimications
Commission at a meeting in Washing
ton, D.C. on March 12 ordered broad
casters to listen to all groups that
are significant elements vrithin their
service areas, including lesbians
and gay men and the handicapped.
Acting on a petition filed in 1977
by the National Gay Task Force and
143 gay oi^nizations from all $0
states, the Commission ruled that
broadcasters must listen to the con
cerns of gay organizations to deter
mine what community needs should be
addressed in progzainming.
But the Commission said that
stations are not obligated to seek
out gay or handicapped groups.
These or other significant com
munity groups must make themselves
known to a broadcaster. The broad
caster then decides whether that
element is significant in the
community.
Once a broadcaster decides that
the group is significant in its
service area, the station will be
obligated to contact representatives
of the group in future ascertainment
surveys.
The FCC requires broadcast license
holders to ascertain the problems,
needs and interosts of significant
elements within their broadcast ser
vice areas.
In 1976, a checklist of 19 com
munity elements was established.
They were: agriculturej business;
charities; civic, neighborhood and
fraternal organizations, consumer
services; culture; education; environ
ment; government; labor; military;
minority and ethnic groups;
(FCC, cont. p. 10)
Local Pickets Wash ^^Windows^^
About 25 lesbians and several gay
men from the Durham area picketed
the movie Windows at the Center
Theatre in Durham during the one-
week March mm of the film.
The movie by United Artists/
TransAmerica portrays actress l^lia
Shire as a ’'psychotic'' lesbian who
hires a man to rape a straight woman
she is interested in, presumably to
convert her to lesbianism.
Picketers carried signs such as
"Smash Windows" and "Women Don't Rape
Women, Men Do" and distributed leaflets
to all interested people going into
either movie at the twin Center
Theatres.
The leaflet described the movie
"as a vicious distortion of
lesbianism and female friendships."
It said the moral of the movie is a
warning against women forming friend
ships with other women and a message
that lesbians are to be feared.
The leaflet conclixies by asking
movie goers not to support Hollywood’s
"vicious stereotypes" of gays.
Theatre manager Crockett Webb in a
story in The Worth Carolira Anvil
(March 14, I960} said he was under
contract to show the movie but that
he would not have run it had he
known what it was about.
"I’ve tried to explain that it
was not my doing; it was booked by
the home office (aBO Theatres) in
Florida," he said.
On the opening night in Chapel
Hill on March 21, demonstrators
leafletted in front of the triple
Plaza Theatres.
Only 15 people attended the four
showings of the movie on opening day,
according to Plaza Theatres manager
Larry Johnson,
Protestors in both cities said
they were particularly opposed to
the violence against women portrayed
in the film.
One Chapel Hill demonstrator spoke
about an incident earlier in the week
in which a woman was raped at knife
point in mid-afternoon while jogging
on the (UNG-CH) campus. "Hollywood
ennobles such violence against women
with movies like Windows,"5he said.
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