FRESNO, CALIFORNIA – The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that Community Regional Medical Center will change policies and training after a complaint by a lesbian couple, but hospital officials have disagreed with the ACLU’s description of the case.
The ACLU said a lesbian couple from the Bay Area was in Fresno in May for a rally supporting same-sex marriage when one of the women became ill and was taken to the hospital’s emergency room. The sick woman’s partner said she was not allowed to speak to doctors or visit the woman.
The ACLU said the hospital is reviewing all its policies dealing with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients to make changes.
Hospital official John Zelezny said Wednesday that the hospital “does not agree with the ACLU’s summary of facts” of the patient’s visit.
While the hospital agrees that its policies and training “should always reflect the very latest and best practices” for all patients, Zelezny did not say the hospital had agreed to changes.
from The Fresno Bee
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Big Love / HBO

Television polygamy drama “Big Love” returns for a fourth season in January with a gay storyline that is likely to stir up controversy in Mormon circles where homosexual relations are prohibited.
The creators of the HBO cable show, about a non-Mormon polygamous family living in Utah, plan to explore a same-sex relationship between two male characters involved in a fictional breakaway sect at the center of the series.
The theme will be developed over early episodes of “Big Love” when it returns to HBO on Jan 10, the network confirmed on Wednesday.
It follows an uproar in the U.S. gay community last year over the Mormon church’s prominent support of the campaign to overthrow same-sex marriage laws in California.
“There’s a provocative nature to what we’re doing,” co-creator Mark Olsen told Entertainment Weekly magazine.
“It’s more than just the Mormon culture. We’re highlighting certain aspects of the church’s relationship with its gay members that I think, as the story unfolds, is going to cause no (small) amount of controversy.”
The 13.5 million member Mormon church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, officially banned polygamy in 1890 and has distanced itself from “Big Love”.
But critics of the program say that despite its focus on a fundamentalist sect, the TV show sometimes blurs the distinction between it and the church.
“It is important to remember that ‘Big Love’ is a work of fiction,” Latter-day Saints spokeswoman Kim Farah said on Wednesday.
“Big Love”, which first aired in 2006, stars Bill Paxton as a man with three wives and eight children. The show won three Golden Globe nominations this week.
The first episode of the new season involves Alby, a son of the leader of a fictional polygamist group, in a “close encounter” with a male trustee. Both have been struggling with their sexuality.
Joel Campbell, a columnist with the unofficial church website MormonTimes.com, accused “Big Love” of again using fuzzy plot lines to “stick it to the LDS church.”
“Once again it sounds like Olsen and company are ready to blur the lines between a fictional fundamentalist group and what is practiced in the LDS Church. Bottom line: Producers are using their artistic license as a screen for misinformation and bigotry.”
The official LDS web site says sexual relations are governed by the Law of Chastity, which prohibits homosexual or lesbian relations and says physical intimacy should be “exercised only between a man and a woman who are legally married.”
from Reuters

Neil Patrick Harris / How I Met Your Mother - CBS

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – For once, the TV writers were content.
A quartet of showrunners agreed Wednesday during a Hollywood Radio & TV Society panel that the biz is experiencing a renaissance of sorts as such innovative new hits as Fox’s “Glee” and ABC’s “Modern Family” creatively refresh the industry.

“It was over — the sitcoms were disappearing,” “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner said. “Everything was being replaced with news magazines, there was all this terror about the marketplace … and here it is, coming back. It’s a good time to be watching TV.”

Weiner spoke during HRTS’ annual gathering of top writer-producers, joined by Steve Levitan (“Family”), Carter Bays (CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother”) and Ryan Murphy (“Glee”).

“All of us are in a shock that it did work,” Murphy said of “Glee,” which he said tested “in the middle” among Fox’s focus group. “Kevin Reilly and Peter Liguori said, ‘This is a bizarre show, but we really want to keep thinking outside the box because that’s what we think is going to be a big hit on network television now, not just the same old procedurals.’ ”

After years of such events where writers answered questions about the latest dire challenge facing the industry, moderator Peter Tolan (FX’s “Rescue Me”) didn’t seem to skirt hot-button issues by sticking to more fan-friendly questions.

When asked about dealing with fans’ high expectations, Levitan said that after working for years on less successful projects, the pressure on “Family” is outweighed by “the joy that people like and care about the show.”

One line of inquiry explored how CBS reacted to “Mother” star Neil Patrick Harris revealing to fans that he is gay during the show’s second season.

“He’s such a phenomenal actor, you’re not thinking you’re watching Neil Patrick Harris when he’s performing,” said Bays, who said the network supported the decision.

Weiner said that though Harris’ case turned out fine, gay actors continue to have valid concerns about coming out.

“It can be a commercially devastating thing,” he said. “If you’re a sex symbol to women … your position as a fantasy object, the viability of that, it can be jeopardized. And people still struggle with it.”

from The Hollywood Reporter

UNITED KINGDOM – Police in Lancashire say many sexual assaults in the gay, lesbian and transgender community are not reported.
Officers who usually deal with rape cases have been working with members of Blackpool’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transexual (LGBT) forum.
The officers from Operation Aquamarine believe that some victims are not reporting sexual assaults. Only two have been reported in more than a year.
Posters and business cards have been put in pubs, clubs and support groups.
Officers have also visited a number of forums and venues to raise awareness of the campaign.
‘Dignity and respect’
Det Insp Sue Cawley, of Lancashire Police, said: “Confidence in reporting sexual offences in the LGBT community seems to be low and we want to make sure that all members of the community feel comfortable reporting this type of horrific crime.
“We have a team of specially trained officers to support victims of rape and we want to make sure that members of the LGBT community have the information that they need to report such crime.
“I want to reassure people that if they do come forward to report a sexual assault, we will treat them with dignity and respect.”
Since Operation Aquamarine began in September 2008, there have been just two reported sexual assaults from the LGBT community in Blackpool and the Fylde.
from The BBC
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