From: sds@cs.utexas.edu (Sara Strandtman)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Articles in main stream media
Summary: Garth Brooks, P-FLAG
Keywords: our family values
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:57:33 GMT
Organization: U Texas Dept of Computer Sciences, Austin TX
NNTP-Posting-Host: peaches.cs.utexas.edu

The October 12th issue of Newsweek includes the article "Garth Takes a
Brave Stand - Country's big star bucks `family values'

Some excerpts:
Garth Brooks just jumped into the family-values debate, right into the
mess of it.  "The way I remember it, " he said during a free afternoon
in his current national concert tour, "traditional family values
was encouraging children to be the best they can be.  If your parents
are black and white, if your parents are the same sex, that's still 
traditional family values to me.

This was Brooks's way of explaining the song "We Shall Be Free," which 
leads off his new album, "The Chase," and includes a vote of support for
same-sex couples. ... "When we're free to love anyone we choose," he sings,
"then we shall be free."  This is a first for country music.  Yet it isn't 
the only radical cut on the new album. "Fact to  Face," the closing song,
takes on the thorny topic of date rape, encouraging women to stand up to
men who mistreat them.

This kind of progressive, topical songwriting, coming from a rock or rap act,
would be no big deal.  But from Brooks, it is a revolution. ... He has
pushed the boundaries before: his 1990 song "The Thunder Rolls" addressed 
domestic violence and promptly got banned from the country video channels. ...

The biggest risk for Brooks is that the bedrock of the country-music 
community, the church, is often inimical to what he has to say about 
homosexuality.  Country singers, even real big ones, better make peace with
the church.  Brooks, who has always put himself forward as a very religious 
performer, now has to walk a tightrope. "It's tough for me, because I love 
the Bible," he explained.  "For those people that feel religiously that 
homosexuality is wrong, are they not as right as the people who feel 
homosexuality is right? But I say, `Hey, man, stay on your own side.' To
penalize someone for being homosexual, I don't think that's our place."  
At the same time, he added, "I don't want the whole religious world down on 
my ass, either."  ...

---end excerpt--

 ...those people that feel religiously that homosexuality is wrong, are 
 they not as right as the people who feel homosexuality is right?

In reading the article a second time, the above comment stood out a little
more than the first time and I found myself wishing that Garth could have
omitted even this small equivocation.  But, hey, I went out and bought
the CD.

Also on the newsstands, the November 3 issue of Woman's Day has the article
"Mom, I'm Gay".  I haven't read it yet, but the local Parents and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG) is very enthuisatic about it and recommends 
it.  P-FLAG is given good exposure it in.   I may post portions if it seems
interesting.

Several months ago, I would not have imagined being thrown a wedding
shower (Tupperware, no less), setting off a minor flurry by placing
a marriage (yes, of course, same-sex) announcement in the local paper,
or buying a Woman's Day.  Yet, it's all happened in the space of 4 months.

Sara