From:    LARRY SITES
To:      ALL                                    Oct-16-94 11:20:00
Subject: AFA wants PBS censored

I received a letter from People for the American Way. They say that the
Rev. Don Wildmon, a Tupelo, Mississippi minister, and his censorship lobby,
the American Family Association, have selected public television as a new
target. Apparently the AFA was upset by the PBS broadcast of Armistead
Maupin's _Tales of the City_, a six hour multi-part series that broke
ratings records by drawing almost 14 million viewers.

The AFA created a 12 minute bootleg videotape highlighting the show's
four-letter words, fleeting nudity, pot-smoking and one prolonged gay kiss.
For those that missed it, the show was about the lives and loves, hetro and
homo, of the residents of a San Francisco apartment building before free
love was replaced with safe sex. This 12 minute tape is being used to
pressure members of Congress to support the AFA's religious agenda.

Apparently the AFA is having some success at the state level. In Georgia,
they convinced the state legislators to pass a resolution condemning
Georgia Public Television and eliminate $19.6 million earmarked for new
facilities. In Oklahoma, the state's Educational Television Authority
agreed to review programming guidelines after being threatened with budget
cuts. The Oklahoma House passed laws prohibiting broadcast of programming
depicting homosexuality in any but a critical light. In Arizona,
legislators grilled the President of the state university, which had aired
the show, during budget hearing. When the president reported favorable
response to the show, one legislator retorted: "There are a lot of sick
people out there." Now, AFA is working on Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana,
Florida, Ohio, and US congressional committees reauthorizing the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Unless those that disagree with these religious prudes speak up, they will
succeed in forcing their bigoted religious superstitions upon the PUBLIC
Broadcasting System. Call your state and federal congresspersons and tell
them to keep religious censorship out of PBS funding. Call the PBS
toll-free comment line at 1-800-356-2626 and tell them you oppose religious
censorship of programs such as _Tales of the City_. If you choose, you can
financially support the People for the American Way, 2000 M Street NW,
Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036, in their efforts to oppose religious
censorship.

Thanks, Larry Sites 


 Peace, Larry