In the Life: Ep. 1109, "10th Anniversary Edition"

this month on in the life we're celebrating our 10th anniversary with these stories on today's gay and lesbian issues it took rosie o'donnell's coming out to bring national attention to the florida law that prohibits gays and lesbians from adopting children today we'll meet some men and women who are fighting for the right to become parents i don't think america knows what a gay parent looks like i am the gay parent from hello dolly to la cajo faux composer and lyricist jerry herman has been writing broadway hits for over 40 years we'll meet the man behind the music as well as some of the fabulous women in his life the most exciting thing in the world and jerry was overjoyed i mean he never knew anybody who was more supportive of an actress at that moment than jerry vibe magazine is the bible for urban culture and hip-hop music which is often seen as a homophobic music genre we'll go behind the scenes with vibes editor-in-chief emile wilbecken who's changing that perception one column at a time and then some of the letters were from gay black men who were mad that i outed them that i outed the culture plus andy hum goes out and about to bring you the latest news and cultural happenings and harvey fierstein takes a trip back to his old hood in this month's outtakes all this and more on the 10th anniversary edition of in the life in the life is funded in part by the h van ameringen foundation additional support provided by the gill foundation the pride foundation the ted snowden foundation the auto haas charitable trust the collingwood foundation the reed williams foundation william j resnick michael a levin richard winger fund of stonewall community foundation and the annual support of in the life members like you welcome to the show i'm catherine linton over the past decade we've been proud to bring you the news trends and groundbreaking issues that affect the gay and lesbian community worldwide tonight's first story is about doing whatever it takes to create a family and one of the hottest topics in this arena right now is florida's anti-gay adoption law correspondent jonathan k part reports on the fight for the right to adopt rosie o'donnell outed herself on national television to draw attention to a florida law that prohibits gays and lesbians from adopting children rosie who has dual residency in new york and miami has created a family with her partner kelly carpenter and their three adopted children but recently rosie faced a harsh reality under florida law she can never adopt the child she once fostered because she's gay i don't think america knows what a gay parent looks like i am the gay parent while rosie o'donnell's activism will likely help the movement to change florida's anti-gay law florida's growing population of gay families has been suffering silently the reason is a 25-year-old law that singles out gays and lesbians it reads quote no person who is otherwise eligible under this statute can adopt if he or she is a homosexual sexuality is not a precursor to good parenting in 1997 a county judge refused to rule the ban unconstitutional and in 1999 the aclu filed the first federal civil lawsuit on behalf of foster parents steve lofton and roger croteau it was thrown out of court and is now on appeal florida's ban on adoption by lesbians and gay men violates the guaranteed equal protection under the law of the united states constitution the law targets lesbians and gay men and no one else singles them out for exclusion from adoption despite the fact there is that there is no reason to believe that lesbians and gay men can't be and aren't good parents ironically the state allows gays and lesbians to become certified foster parents they simply can't legally adopt the foster children they have nurtured the aclu's case against the state involves three plaintiffs all who charge that the law is unconstitutional these families stand to lose children they've fostered since birth and all of the plaintiffs are facing the reality that they can never create the kind of long-term stability for these children adoption can provide steve lofton and roger crateau partners for more than 17 years stand to lose 11-year-old bert a child who has been with them since birth he was born hiv positive as were the rest of their foster kids but now that bert is hiv negative the state says it wants to find him a permanent heterosexual home i would hope that no one who would call himself or herself a child welfare professional would dare rip a child away from the only family he's ever known his whole life the law dates back to 1977 when entertainer anita bryant spearheaded an anti-gay crusade her movement was successful and the florida legislature passed the law by a sweeping margin nobody knew who was gay or lesbian at the time no one was out this was 1977 25 years ago and it was a completely different environment elaine bloom a conservative democrat with an 18-year history of promoting fairness was one of those legislators who voted in favor of the ban a vote she now regrets i had to go back search through all my old house journals and it's easy it's there you know once you see the record i think it was may 31st 1977. so i did it and i'm sorry elaine has personally set out to convince her fellow legislators to admit they made a mistake too and stand behind repealing the law i talked to some of my former colleagues and said we have an opportunity to at least go public with our own views now do you agree to a statement that says in 1977 we made a mistake on this particular vote because it denied children the opportunity for loving supportive families elaine didn't know it then but her son david was gay and she had just enacted a law that could affect him years later i feel remiss is that i have never discussed with my mother that phil in 1977 i never asked her how she voted david and his partner had their son using a surrogate when they lived in new york a state where there are no laws prohibiting gays and lesbians from second parent adoptions they recently moved to florida where the adoption ban has no effect on them but it does on other gays and lesbians raising kids in florida you know about steve and roger and their struggle to keep burt but other gay families are hurting too i could practically cry on camera when i think about the kids that are literally sitting in institutions in florida not being able to replace any of the days that go by while we allow this the law to stay on the books it's just it breaks my heart it's just so wrong wayne leroux smith and dan scan are also plaintiffs in the aclu lawsuit they've been together for nearly 10 years and live in florida's key west for the past three years they've opened their doors to the state's foster children they also charge that the law is unconstitutional and labels them unfit parents we saw 11 children through our house now in the foster care system and each of them had their own individual problems of neglect abuse or abandonment that we had to deal with and bringing those kids around is one of the most difficult jobs i've ever encountered wayne and dan are currently taking care of two little boys whose identities we have to protect the toughest part is learning what they've been through that brought them here our main goal with our children is providing them safety in our home this is their safe place they don't have to fear anything when they're here my greatest hope is to have just made a difference no matter how small or how large in their lives we literally have a white picket fence okay and everything that stands for is what our home is about i tell people that probably the biggest reason we're involved in this lawsuit is because we are 100 in favor of family values and white picket fences the american psychological association the american academy of pediatrics and the child welfare league disagree with those who say homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to adopt what the state of florida truly is saying is that people who are gay or lesbian or bisexual are wonderful people to take care of foster children who have no other place to be placed and yet you can place them for permanent adoption it doesn't make any sense there are currently more than 3 400 kids waiting to be adopted in the state of florida right now 400 of them are being raised in gay or lesbian foster homes and given the chance the majority would adopt the children they are fostering if the gay adoption ban is repealed the hopeful byproduct would be that you'd have more people seeking to adopt children people like stephen roger wayne and dan and of course rosie it was here at florida's gladstone center in south miami a safe haven for abused girls where rosie was inspired to become a licensed foster parent she was so moved by the place and she was so moved by the mission of caring and the high level of quality that the kids receive here that she wanted to become more involved that meant getting licensed to foster children in the state of florida and nowhere on that application does it ask the question are you a homosexual i call it the big don't ask don't tell conspiracy the impact of florida's anti-gay adoption law reaches far beyond foster parenting it also prevents gay and lesbian couples the right to seek second parent adoptions robin singer and zibi giardina of fort lauderdale florida together for more than 13 years decided to have their own children robin is the biological parent through donor insemination the issue becomes obviously if god forbid something happens to me the kids um you know really in the real world are sort of up for grabs legally she has no right you know it's out of our hands i mean morally there are children in our hearts in our family and nobody can change that irrespective of what the the laws may or may not say they call me mom z i'm mom z they're as much my children as they are robin's children i chose to give them zibby's last name because it was the only piece that i could give her to connect you know the puzzle pieces zibby did try to obtain legal guardianship of her children but was advised that it would be a long and costly court battle one that she would never win i have no ground to stand on at all in this state in the state of florida the florida law prevents these second parent adoptions from taking place and means that children are who otherwise could benefit from having two legally responsible parents only can have one but there are ways around the florida law when naomi parker adopted her daughter jamira from the state of new jersey she found a loophole because jamiro's legal place of birth and residence was in the state of new jersey florida couldn't do anything about it so it was like a more of a slam dunk in the state of florida's face jamira was a crack baby and at 22 months she had already been in five foster homes today she is a thriving nine-year-old naomi and her partner susan are also caring for naomi's biological daughter bria they are not only fighting for the day they can give jumeirah the benefits of two legal parents they are fighting for the rights of all gays and lesbians who want to create families without having to circumvent the law in the meantime they try not to worry about the underlying threat the law poses to jamara's safety i wish like the law will change and so it will protect me and my sister um i agree real that i hope to see the law change to myself to protect me my sister and our family the courts in florida have not historically been sympathetic to the gay community but the fate of the adoption law is now in the hands of the 11th circuit court of appeals elaine bloom's efforts to bring the law before the florida legislature next spring will help the case for gay and lesbian adoption so will rosie o'donnell's support and visibility so now people have advace to the name of what a gay parent is and it's rosie o'donnell for her to be so brave to put her face on a very important issue that has so personally affected my family i find it just absolutely commendable she's not someone coming in from the outside right or she's not just a spokesperson but she's someone who wanted to adopt a child in florida and couldn't because of the law it also seems somewhat poetic that since the law was initially urged and championed by a celebrity anita bryant it seems that now the law should die with a celebrity urging the cause to kill it don't let these children suffer without a family because of your bias because of anita bryant's hate-filled rhetoric right now all eyes might be on florida but utah and mississippi also have laws preventing gay couples from adopting and there are six other states considering similar bans for in the life i'm jonathan capar later in the show hip-hop music and its culture have long been seen as homophobic we'll get a different view to the eyes of vibe magazine's editor-in-chief emil wilbecken i would have the power to change those perceptions and open up people's eyes but coming up next an interview with an original broadway baby the broadway musical has been around longer than hip-hop disco or even rock and roll and one of its legends jerry herman helped put the great in the great white way correspondent daniel karslak takes a look at this remarkable man and his extraordinary career for more than 40 years the work of broadway's jerry herman has defined the great american musical in fact he's the only composer lyricist in broadway history to have had three of his musicals hello dolly maim and la caja fall run for more than fifteen hundred performances each in a rare interview jerry who was literally born on broadway talks about his incredible life in the theater i was born in a hospital room where my mother's window overlooked the marquee of the winter garden theater and of course she had no idea that 34 years later her son's musical name would be emblazoned on that marquee it is probably a cliche to have a gay son who thinks his mother is the most glamorous wonderful thing in the world but my mother ruth was all of those things she was a piano player and singer she had her own radio show before i was born my parents loved the musical theater and the night i they took me to andy get your gun they really created a monster it really was a turning point from that moment on i knew that if there was one dream that i had it was to write songs like irving berlin road and to give the gift of music to other people the way he had given it to me so jerry pursued his dream to write music and through his teens and twenties he honed his craft writing songs for reviews and small off-broadway shows with the premiere of his first broadway musical milk and honey in 1961 everything started to change it got wonderful reviews and i got nominated for a tony award and i was really swept away following the success of milk and honey jerry was asked by broadway impresario david merrick and director gower champion to work on a new musical based on thornton wilder's play the matchmaker it was to be called hello dolly i had written the score for ethel merlin and when it came time to play it for ethel she announced that she never wanted to do another broadway show i was devastated of course because that was my my idol and my goal was to you know to have her in a show of mine but gower said i have an idea i worked with a woman named carol channing in a review called lindeneer and i think she can be marvelous in this role well it changed my whole life it was truly love at first sight for both of us he really was gorgeous it was love at first sight and jerry insists it was mutual now you know i mean really here i had a score that was written for ethel merman and so all of ethel's what we call money notes you know those high seas were way out of carol's range and to break the ice i said carol i've always wanted to hear these songs way down in the register that the men sing in he said i want mother earth that's what i want and he said that's the way i conceived it and that's the way i always wanted he lied in his teeth no composer wants his song sung down there and we did it anyway and i relaxed completely because and i just said hello harry well hello louie daddy you're still good i did do a lot of change for carol and all to the good we hugged and we laughed and we had never stopped laughing it was a partnership that worked because when hello dolly opened on broadway on january 19 1964 it was a smash hit it was the hit of the decade we won not only ten tony awards and grammy awards but drama critics awards i had no idea that i was about to follow it with another experience that was as as satisfying or more satisfying a little thing called mame we were searching for a lady to play maine and we had at this point honestly seen every lady who was breathing in new york city i had just done a tremendously exciting musical called anyone can whistle written by steven sondheim which had run for exactly nine performances and had closed so i went home to california with my tail between my legs i remember this stunning lady who of course i knew as a great screen actress belting out a sondheim song and she knocked me out of my seat and so i picked up the phone and i called our producers and i said i found i found our name the producers were hesitant to even audition lansbury because she was best known for playing matronly roles in films certainly not for being a glamorous leading lady but jerry insisted and a few days later there at my front door was this tall elegant lady and a mink coat and i took one look at her the first time i'd ever seen her in person and i and i my heart stopped for a minute because i knew that that was mame what was a foot was a huge broadway musical which jerry had written and he the only one at this point who believed that i could play name i started teaching her it's today the opening number and if he walked into my life i thought the contrast between those two members would show everything that that that she needed it gave me great confidence because if he felt i could do it then i thought well um if he thinks i can do it i can do it i made her a tape and i said go to bed with this tape in your ear and i'll meet you tomorrow morning and we'll go over it once more jerry was absolutely adamant that i that i impress them with my prowess as a singer and also to act the role and so he said look what i'm going to do is i'm going to play the piano for you and she walked out on stage with her mink and threw it on a chair in a wonderfully uh uh dramatic and and and theatrical gesture and she heard this arpeggio and she went the most exciting thing in the world and jerry was overjoyed i mean you never knew anybody who was more supportive of an actress at that moment than jerry it was a lovely thing to see a great actress emerge as a great musical star she became the the darling of broadway musicals and she won four tony awards two in shows of mine name and dear world jerry's next three shows dear world mac and mabel and the grand tour were not considered successful so the decade of the 70s was difficult but everything changed one day when jerry went to the movies i went to see a film called la cajo fall at a little art theater with my friend chuck and i walked out of that theater into the daylight and i said this is going to be my next musical i won another tony award and i had a five-year run and it was one of the most joyous experiences i've ever i've ever lived through one song from lecage i am what i am has become especially meaningful to the gay community i didn't really know how that song affected the gay community until a gay pride parade a float came by and i am what i am was blared out of that float and everybody in the group that i was in stopped and i saw people crying and it was one of the great moments in my life and i had no idea until that moment how how important that song was these days jerry remains one of the busiest people in show business traveling the country speaking to college students about musical theater buying and completely redesigning houses like this his current home in beverly hills spending time with his partner terry marler and writing his next new musical called miss spectacular i follow him implicitly he was handed so many different talents the range of the man is unbelievable i don't think jerry has ever been given the credit that he that he should have over these many years because he's an extraordinarily good lyricist and he's also a great melody spinner i mean there's no question about it when somebody writes me a letter and says when when my housework gets too too overwhelming and when the kids are really i i turn my my main album on and i sing we need a little christmas with with with miss lansbury and i get through the day that way that letter made me cry because that's the stranger that i made saying the way irving berlin made me sing that night that i went to sienna yet sugar coming up on in the life how one man is giving the world a new perspective on hip-hop the story is a very controversial story about these guys that are into hip-hop and are gay but posed as straight andy hum takes you from coast to coast for the latest news in out and about and later in outtakes harvey fierstein has something on his mind heterosexuals are a thing of the past like britney spears andrew lloyd webber and ron reagan jr james arthur baldwin is commonly acknowledged to have been one of the most important literary voices of the african-american civil rights era a proud black gay man and a gifted author james baldwin has written many works including go tell it on the mountain another country and the internationally celebrated book on homosexual love giovanni's room i'm paris barkley and you're watching in the line in 1992 whitney houston's i will always love you topped the charts the crying game was a surprise hit at the box office and bill clinton became the first democratic president in 12 years it was also the year that a man named john scagliotti had an idea for a news and entertainment show that gays and lesbians could call their very own and he named it in the life it seems that the broadcasting apologists are hiding behind big bird mr rogers and masterpiece theater laying down their quality smoke screen while they shovel out funding for gay and lesbian variety shows well they didn't exactly shovel out the funding but in 1992 the show's creator found enough support from the new york state council on the arts and wnyc-tv in new york city in the life premiered as a bi-monthly variety show on just six pbs stations becoming the first show of its kind to reach out to the gay and lesbian community now i know a lot of you are thinking gosh not another show on gays and lesbians on television comic and satirist kay clinton came on board as host and the show featured performances by groups like castleberry dupre and the harmonious flirtations these were some of the top acts on the gay entertainment scene at the time we want a superman like christopher reed as the first season progressed newscaster garrett glazier comedian karen williams and playwright and actor charles bush came on board to host you know miss dale this is a show devoted to gay and lesbian culture oh really you mean this isn't american movie classics in the spring of 1993 there was no greater gay and lesbian event than the march on washington an event so important that we left our home base of new york and did the entire show amidst a celebration and protest in our nation's capital it was a wonderful time celebrities and parties singing and dancing communion and reunion but the heart and mind of the 1993 march on washington was on something serious and far-reaching gay and lesbian civil rights this monumental event propelled in the life to take a more journalistic approach in serving the gay and lesbian community and we officially became a news magazine and i officially came on board as co-host in the life's purpose is to bring discussions of gay culture and identity to a national audience so in keeping with our new format we introduced one-on-one interviews with some of the nation's leading playwrights pundits and performers don't negate my experiences just because they may not fit in your form we were also there to cover another milestone event in gay and lesbian culture new york's historic stonewall 25 celebration that year's pride month also included the gay games bringing thousands of gay athletes from all over the world okay some more talented than others gay games did you play anything this week or watch anything i did not have my events and it was channel surfing amidst the celebrations there was a poignant tribute to all those lost to aids the third season marked a new era for in the life as the series honed in on diversity politics and issue oriented programming we open the door for a variety of voices to be heard like racism homophobia is not always pinpointable you can't always tell when it's happening or who it's coming from you just know that there's something wrong in our fourth season we traveled halfway around the world to beijing china to cover the united nations world conference on women here lesbian activists were helping educate women from many countries on issues of sexuality and human rights i was really curious you know about this lesbianism in india we don't we have i mean we don't know we don't know much about lesbianism here i learned i learned that it's something natural you know but we never ignored the issues in our own backyard and we were there to cover the strong gay and lesbian presence at the 1996 republican national convention does the rnc hear us probably not but will we be discouraged our sixth season began with a hard-hitting report on the ex-gay movement the first in a series that explored the radical rights assault on gay and lesbian civil rights we're here we're ex-queer get used to it i support you but i need you to support me and being happy and being who i am even if i want to do that forever that season we not only stayed close to hard-hitting issues here in the u.s but we also went global producing our most ambitious show ever by visiting three continents and five countries hong kong is such a hybrid kind of society because there is this influence from western culture and also this long history of chinese traditional values battled the windy pacific fought off a hurricane in the following seasons in the life continued to develop its roster of correspondence as well as its commitment to reporting issues of civil rights and social justice i've always appreciated librarians but never quite so fully as when my my book suddenly got into the news they're truly the foot soldiers of the first amendment in the life not only stayed tuned to the gay and lesbian experience we also broke new ground by covering issues relevant to the transgender community it is kind of shocking and confusing for people that you know here i'm i was a heterosexual man and now i'm a woman and still chasing women that you know huh where's that come from so that's confusing to people by the new millennium in the life had garnered critical acclaim and many celebrities lent their face and name to our series with public service announcements you're watching the emmy award-nominated gay and lesbian news magazine in the life true story this year harvey fierstein joined in the light as our very own resident commentator now in its 10th season in the life continues to evolve and we remain committed to providing award-winning journalism reporting the issues concerns and interests important to gays and lesbians everywhere hello i'm susan sarandon i'm dan butler i'm elaine harris hi i'm terence mcnally this is my mother i'm wilson cruz i'm martina navratilova patricia clarkson i'm matthew c patrick i'm edward i'm kate clinton margaret cho i'm alan ball and you're watching you're watching and you're watching and you're watching america's gay and lesbian gay and lesbian news magazine in the life in the life in the life in the life happy anniversary and happy anniversary happy 10th anniversary congratulations on your 10th season in the life from protests to praise from awards to anniversaries gaze the word this june as we scour the nation for news events and celebrations i'm andy hum and this is in the life's 10th anniversary edition of out and about in the news topeka demagogue fred phelps continues to hold his hate protests at the most inappropriate of occasions including a recent appearance in new york city fred phelps and his family were in town protest the fdny because he believes that september 11th was god's punishment for homosexuality in new york city a crass act to say the least but it turns out the joke is now on phelps ever clever gay groups have found a new way to organize and profit from phelps notoriety what you do is every time fred phelps and his family visit your area you get everybody together to pledge x amount of dollars like a dollar a minute five dollars from bellingham to brooklyn gay activists are reeling in the dollars for every minute the reverend phelps and his cohorts hold their protest vigils to date over fifty thousand dollars has been raised to benefit gay groups nationwide the victory fund is the leading national political organization that recruits trains and supports lesbian and gay candidates the fund is steaming ahead towards the upcoming november elections backing a roster of over 50 candidates hoping to join the ranks of the nation's 220 out-elected officials or a variety of gay and lesbian office seekers welcome to the second rothfur county commissioner volunteer meeting in oklahoma jim roth is running to become that state's first out county commissioner in maine susan longley daughter of former governor james longley is hoping to join the three current out congress members by winning a seat in the u.s house of representatives peter moraga is vying to become an arizona state representative and in north carolina recently out and proud candidate sharon thompson is setting her sights on that state's house of representatives since its inception the victory fund has raised over three million dollars to help elect gays and lesbians to public office chicago was the place to be this april for the fourth annual reaching out convention the nation's only gay dedicated recruitment event specifically for job-seeking mbas some 20 leading corporations set up shop specifically to meet and greet more than 400 gay and lesbian potential masters in business administration san francisco's new gay center opened its doors in early march these are the people who made it happen built as a collaboration between 40 different organizations the center's opening weekend included galas politicos and all manner of festivity it's estimated that the new center will serve over 48 000 clients from the bay area each year on the culture front glad the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation celebrated spring by hosting their 13th annual media awards stars nominees and supporters gay and straight gathered at three ceremonies nationwide to honor those who have best represented lesbians and gays in the media kristen johnston hosted the new york show which included tributes to special honorees nathan lane and glenn close and i have had a certain experiences in my life the greta kama meyer story that i did in the gloaming that i did that were very meaningful to me alan ball the advocate and shirley maclaine were honored at the los angeles ceremonies while sandra bernhardt and brook shields received accolades at the san francisco show after 14 years honoring the finest in gay and lesbian literature this year's lambda literary awards took a turn for the spicier this year they have added a category for erotica and romance ms taramino hosted a pre-event reading in lower manhattan giving assembled fans a taste of what's in store on the women's side a real life strip club i've been dreaming of just such a place for years but had never worked up the courage to actually go to one later at the lambda literary awards ceremony margaret cho was the guest of honor receiving the building bridges award other lamy winners this year included achi obejas for best lesbian fiction and the greatest taboo homosexuality in black communities for best essay despite a laundry list of obstacles to gay adoption america is in the midst of a gaby boom okay so here's our family okay and in the life's own segment producer johnny simons has chronicled his and his partner's journey into parenthood with his new documentary daddy and papa this is our new reality that's right hey cutie pie as daddy and papa demonstrates gay men are challenging common notions of family interracial relationships marriage and child rearing the documentary takes a fresh approach in exploring the potential minefields and fields of gold that await prospective father father couples as in the life celebrates its 10th anniversary a pause is in order to recognize some of the many other important anniversaries starting with the pioneering media outlet the advocate to actually start to communicate through 12 mimeograph pages 35 years ago long before ellen degeneres did a one-page q a and wound up on the cover of time magazine the advocate was the only place that you could go and tell your story other anniversaries being celebrated include the los angeles gay and lesbian center that recently had its 30th anniversary while on the opposite coast new york's gay men's health crisis celebrates its 21st year of serving clients in the new york metro area pridefest america in philadelphia the nation's premier lesbian and gay cultural festival turns 10 this year while inter pride the organization devoted to promoting gay lesbian bisexual and transgender pride on an international level turns 21 body positive in new york city celebrates its 15-year anniversary as an aid service organization and in los angeles congregation beth haim hadashim is celebrating 30 years as the world's first gay and lesbian synagogue the new york city police gay officers action league or goal has been blazing trails for 20 years and galla choruses the umbrella organization for more than 170 courses nationwide soars into its 21st year of existence pflag parents and friends of lesbians and gays turns 30 this year having first met in a church hall back in 1973 and lambda legal defense also marks an amazing 30 years of activism happy 17th anniversary to amfar the aids research group and their founding national chairwoman elizabeth taylor and congrats to act up the original aids activist group who turned 16 this year and rounding up our anniversary salute is southern california's largest lgbt arts and film festival outfest which turns 20 years old this year you can log on to in the lifetv.org to find links to many of the organizations that we profiled this month i'm andy hum and you've been out and about emil wilbecken has a remarkable story as a gay african-american he seems an unlikely champion of hip-hop music which is often seen as homophobic but as editor-in-chief of vibe magazine which was founded by quincy jones in 1993 emil is using his position to educate the world about the true guts and glory of this urban music it's about the superstars of urban music he wants to tell the stories that exist behind hip-hop the drama the politics sexual identity some people feel like being gays is a challenge hip-hop music has definitely been known to be homophobic that's probably why people in the hip-hop community are not open about it there are also all these beautiful positive things about hip-hop all i need is one mic i'm emil wilbecken editor-in-chief of vibe magazine quincy came up with the idea for an urban music and culture magazine that would be multicultural not just about music but about the arts and film and politics and it would be young and it would be beautiful and it would be cutting edge as editor-in-chief of a magazine you are the face of the magazine so you have to represent the magazine you have to come up with the content with your team of editors making sure that the magazine is balanced and fair making sure that the magazine sells on newsstands i grew up in cincinnati ohio which is a very you know big urban city but it's also very conservative i always felt like something was different or unique about me i had won awards for art shows in kindergarten and i won my first writing essay contest in the third grade so there are always these things that kind of set me apart i remember wanting to have my own magazine and my goal in my head was to be the other in chief of my own magazine by the time i was 30 and to be a millionaire by the time i was 30. so i became veteran chief of vibe when i was 31 and i'm still working on the millionaire part but um so you know how in the beginning of the mary tyler memorial show she's in minneapolis and she throws her hat in the air that's how i felt when i came to new york i was really really excited i felt like i was finally home in the early 90s when i was working at metropolitan home i was introduced to a couple of editors from other magazines who happened to be gay and they very much encouraged me to come out and to be honest with myself and my friends and my family as to who i was i remember being a nervous wreck and like butterflies in my stomach and my hands sweating all day and i called home and i remember just kind of saying like mom and dad i'm gay and my mother just started crying and screaming and saying no no no please lord no and my father said that he kind of had an idea which was kind of surprising to me even though the time was very difficult with my family and it was very you know emotionally just hard i definitely felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders by being honest with them when i started at vibe magazine in 92 i was associate editor he's held every single position at the magazine whether it's taking care of the next section which is our new talent section fashion director i mean everything when i was considering if i would go after the vibe editor-in-chief job i definitely in my head thought about the homophobia in hip-hop and the misogyny and the perceived small-mindedness of the hip-hop community but then i also thought about the fact that i would have the power to change those perceptions and open up people's eyes emil's got a very calm attitude and a very honest kind of approach that allows him to be critical to make choices that are uncomfortable and to make artists uncomfortable when necessary to tell the truth to keep his integrity and is a tremendous amount of respect for him in our industry there was a rapper who was playing his album for us for consideration for a cover and one of the songs came on and i'm there with my music editor and one of my writers and the song is like and beat you down and and kill the and da da da da and he realized it and jumped up and looked at me and was like i'm so sorry i really apologize and turned the song off i called the record label the next day and i was very very you know disappointed with the fact that that was being considered for the album because i felt like that is not the types of messages that we should be putting out in the music right now the song did not make the album i think what makes him a great leader is that he really pays attention to people i think that's very important when you are selling a magazine to many people in the world and when you are acknowledging and recognizing different artists you have to really get into what people want and what people like one story that i really really felt and passion about was doing a gay hip-hop story no one really knew how to kind of go about it and do it in a way that would be sort of not offensive let's say to our you know non-gay readers that they would find this interesting and at the same time that the gay readers would feel like this was representing them i was going out to these clubs in new york and dc and atlanta and los angeles and miami that were hip-hop clubs all these kids were thugged out with the gold chains and the gold teeth and cornrows and just you name any rapper there was a lookalike there of that person the fact is these clubs were gay the story is a very controversial story about these guys that are into hip-hop and are gay but posed as straight and don't are not out and then it also talks about the conflict of loving music that is you know degrading and that is self-deprecating and that is homophobic we got more letters from this story than any other story published in the history of the magazine most of them positive most of them kids from oklahoma or you know down south who were thankful for us for writing the story because it represented them and then some of the letters were from gay black men who were mad that i outed them that i outed the culture i realized that you know what this is a very hot topic and obviously we have a lot of gay readers or people who are interested in gay culture so it was kind of it was very rewarding meal brings just in his person the tendency to strive for excellence he has intuitive sense for really what's hot with a particular genre or a particular artist and also a real finger on the pulse in terms of what's driving the culture i still have a lot of work at vibe that i want to do there's still a lot of stories that haven't been told there's still a lot of education and cultural awareness that needs to happen i was reading the book borrowed time and aids memoir i finished it and i turned to my husband and i said i have to know paul minnett i have to meet him so i called my agent and i said how can i find paul minnett he said he's dating a friend of yours so i called my friend stephen kolczak who paul was dating at the time and i said stephen you're inviting me over for dinner and he did and we got to know paul and he became family and then when he won the national book award we threw a party at our house for him and we rented a throne and a crown and a scepter we have a picture of him sitting on the throne and then in 1995 he died february 10th the day after my birthday which i thought was very considerate of him and in may we did the california aids right in his memory and he's still in my heart i'm judith light and you're watching in the life in tonight's outtakes harvey fierstein proves that you can go home again are we ready is everybody in place props that seems logical on a perfect spring day i made a pilgrimage to the neighborhood of my youth park slope brooklyn new york it had always been a family-friendly area tree-lined avenues choked with bustling school-bound kids mommies guiding strollers daddies chasing toddlers nannies pushing swings 20 years had not changed a thing except who the hell was guiding them strollers chasing them toddlers pushing them swings it was us lesbians and gay males parenting as far as the eye could see i began to worry well not about the new breeding role of homosexuals but about usurping the usefulness of straits i mean now that we procreate with ease our heterosexual is obsolete years ago sociobiologist edward o wilson put forth his theory that homosexuals are absolutely necessary for the survival of the species he held that if homosexuality were not it surely would have been bred out millions of years ago by a natural selection so why are we here we are the teachers who can stay late after school to aid slower students we're the maiden ants and bachelor uncles who provide financial cushioning in case of emergencies we are in his view the worker bees of humanity in a more recent book the soul beneath the skin david nimmins holds that we are a superior society altogether we are he asserts the social and moral leaders of humanity using the aids crisis as backdrop he sets out to illustrate that we are more nurturing altruistic non-violent and even in the face of death fun loving gays and lesbians are more open-minded and more available for intimate relationships not only with partners but also with family and friends our volunteerism alone elevates us high above straight society w has no need to beg us to do our part there is certainly no argument against our claim as artistic and cultural leaders of humanity without us heterosexual wardrobes would break down into two major categories fig leaves and grape leaves all anyone needs to is take a look at the art architecture and home furnishing trends from the mid-80s through the late 90s you will find evidenced a vast black hole of invention when we lost a generation of gay men to the horror of aids the world missed an entire chapter of fashion music art and style oh you don't believe me get out your back issues of vogue architectural digest and rolling stone so given our place as the innovators protectors teachers and keepers of peace what role do heterosexuals play in society beyond warriors and tractor pull drivers procreators us too so if that's all they have to offer who needs them keeping straight people around just to breed is like keeping that old office clunker that prints those curly faxes i mean why bother when you can get a machine that is a printer plain paper facts scanner and answering machine all in one beautiful package heterosexuals nothing but one trick ponies i'm telling you friends heterosexuals are a thing of the past like britney spears andrew lloyd webber and ron reagan jr so again i ask you do we need them of course we do they're our kids besides if there were no heterosexuals who would play us on tv i'm kathryn linton for all of us in the life thank you for watching and we'll see you next month so in the life is funded in part by the hvan american foundation additional support provided by the gill foundation the pride foundation the ted snowden foundation the otto haas charitable trust the collingwood foundation the reed williams foundation william j resnick michael a levin richard winger fund of stonewall community foundation and the annual support of in-the-life members like you you