Aug. 7, 2002
	MEDIA WATCH   BY JIM EDMINSTER WBBM News Radio (8/2) reported that the King Center was upset that an anti-gay initiative in Florida was using pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr. to defend their stance. Coretta Scott King, King's widow, said that her husband would certainly have welcomed lesbians and gays "to the table." The Chicago Tribune (8/2) in an article on gay life in Poland says that due to integration into mainstream Europe and the Internet, the situation is changing rapidly, but that ironically the Roman Catholic church, which heavily influenced and supported political freedom, is still the main antagonist vis-a-vis gays. Andrzej, who didn't want his last hame published, is the founder of the Christian Union of Gays and Lesbians in Poland; he was told by his priest that he couldn't be absolved because his [gay] behavior was worse than an animal's. The respected Catholic Magazine Wiez recently dedicated an entire issue to the topic of homosexuality. Cezary Gawrys, an editor of the magazine, says that at least the Church is now saying you must treat gay people with respect. The NY Times (7/30) says Britain's Conservatives aka the Tories were in for a test of their social inclusiveness when a senior member of their party came out. Alan Duncan did so in a front-page interview with The Times of London, saying "Living in disguise as a politician in the modern world simply isn't an option . ... The Tory view has always been, 'We don't mind, but don't say'. Well, that doesn't work anymore." The party chair sent him a letter of support. This incident may partly make up for last year's loss of Michael Portillo for party leader because of admissions of homosexual experiences at Cambridge when he was a student. Stephen Fry, who you may know as Jeeves from TV, is also an out gay author, and in The NY Times (7/29) he foils attempts to accuse him of plagiarism for his latest novel, Revenge. After he wrote it, he heard little wicked thoughts in his head saying it wasn't very original, at which point he realized his plot was a "straight steal" from Duma's Count of Monte Cristo. Happily he found that Dumas had filched it too, wherepon he (Fry) changed all the names of his protagonists so they were anagrams of the originals. The perfect solution...so gay ...admit and then embellish. (And puns too ...Mercedes in "The Count" becomes Portia in "Revenge."
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