Petrelis Files

GAAD Files FEC Complaint:
Lambert, ABC's Anti-Gay Bias

No matter how you phrase Google searches, like this and this, for any online proof the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has ever, or recently, filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, nothing turns up showing GLAAD has taken the initiative with the FCC.

Fellow GLAAD critic Bill Dobbs disagrees with my contention that a gay media organization should use the levers of the federal government to put some creative pressure on media conglomerates to better meet the needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender American community.

Dobbs is already concerned about GLAAD's bullying and doesn't want to see them using the government to push around the media.

But when I see gay opponents filing complaints over what they don't like on TV, such as gay ican Adam Lambert performing a very tame imitation of oral sex, and the homophobes generating tons of blog posts and MSM coverage over their FCC complaint, I wonder why we fabulously creative queer creatures haven't master this trick yet.

It would really be the death knell for Gay Inc, and GLAAD especially, if they ever had to truly fully embrace and use all the grassroots and astro-turf tactics known to activists of all stripes to affect change. But it is impossible to think Gay Inc would budge from their entrenched thinking, which is top-down and un-engaging on a large scale.

We're supposed to think only the highly-paid executives and consultants know how to move federal levers of power, and to keep funding Gay Inc year-after-year with so little to show for the millions of dollars raised. And yet it took GLAAD more than a full day to even get out a short blog post about Buju Banton getting a Grammy nomination, and four days to launch a lame online petition over it.

To show how easy it is to file an FCC complaint, I did exactly that tonight, after I formed a new group to do it: GAAD, Gay Americans Affirming Diversity.

Here is what I sent to the feds and their automated reply. I used the online complaint form, which limits the number of words to 1,000:

I am lodging a complaint of anti-gay bias against ABC for its deplorable censorship of the sensuous Adam Lambert simulating gay fellatio on Nov 22's American Music Awards broadcast. Lambert's fully-clothed act was artistic and tasteful, by the community standards in which I live, equal to female singers groping each other.

ABC engaged in anti-gay censorship when it cut away from Lambert and his male partner engaging in theatrical fun. The network's refusal to show Lambert's full and vibrating performance denied millions of gay male viewers what they had tuned in for - provocative entertainment for the night.

The network's double-standard regarding male same-sex acts versus the female variety, that have aired on ABC, is unacceptable and must be investigated by the FCC.

I speak on behalf of members of GAAD, Gay Americans Affirming Diversity, and we are outraged over ABC's bias against Lambert on Nov 22. GAAD requests you agree to pursue this complaint.

The reply from the FEC:

Date: 12/08/2009
To: Federal Communications Commission
From: Michael Petrelis
Subject: 09-C00179391 (Form2000 Filed Via The Internet)

Acknowledgment
Filing for: Michael has been received by FCC. Thanks for your information. When inquiring about your complaint, be sure to reference this number: 09-C00179391 and, be sure to mention that you filed this complaint over the internet.