Petrelis Files

GLAAD Doesn't Work Weekends?

At about 9:30 pm on Saturday night, the Miami Herald broke the news that homo-hating Jamaican singer Buju Banton was in federal custody on drug conspiracy charges. I estimate that was the time the paper posted its story to the web, based on the first comment about the story, which was at 9:32 pm.

It didn't take long for me and lots of other bloggers and mainstream media to cover the arrest, and offer up comment on the new legal troubles for the singer.

The detaining of Buju by the Drug Enforcement Administration, coming so quickly after he was nominated for Grammy award, I would think might be something of keen interest to a gay media watchdog org. A chance to use the org's influence at the start of a major crime story related to gays and the entertainment industry, to make a few points on behalf of the community it purports to represent.

But the $7 million org known as GLAAD apparently doesn't pay its staff enough money to work on the weekend. GLAAD hasn't said a peep in the nearly 24-hours, a week in terms of web-time, not only about the Buju arrest but has also been silent on the election of an openly lesbian candidate to be mayor of Houston.

Didn't GLAAD just make some baby activist steps and start a useless online petition about Buju and the Grammys? Does this political org really have absolutely nothing to say about Annise Parker's historic achievement in Texas and how the media has covered her triumph?

In an ideal world, I would expect our bloated gay media watchdog org to have one or two persons, out of a staff of 45 persons, ready on weekends to issue statements or advisories, especially on a slow news weekend when a serious lesbian political contender could get elected in a runoff in a conservative state.

But the world is far from fair and equal, and I must learn to accept that a $7 million budget and 45 staffers is not enough to deliver honest and full-time advocacy from GLAAD. For GLAAD, the movement stops at 5 pm on Fridays and doesn't' start again until Monday at 9 am.

If GLAAD manages to get out a statement on Monday about the Buju and Parker stories from over the weekend, I sure as heck hope gay press and bloggers ask what took them so long.