I'm not following this

Those of you who read the old blog may remember last May, when the networks wouldn't run an ad by the United Church of Christ which said "like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation." Although ABC, at least, was happy to provide airtime to Focus On The Family, the pro-Bush, "pro-life," anti-gay group.

Now, the UCC has come up with another ad that they feel promotes their message of acceptance. And although the broadcast networks, with their typical courage, are refusing to run this one too, it is running on cable channels including A&E, AMC, BET, CNN, CNN, Headline, Hallmark, History, TBS, TNT, E!, and Lifetime. But not, however, on LOGO, which is (nominally) the gay and lesbian network.

I'll say that again: The gay and lesbian network...is refusing to run an ad...that promotes acceptance and tolerance of minorities, explicitly including homosexuals.

You'd be well within your rights to ask: Why?

A Viacom-owned network, LOGO is operated by MTV, which states that its standards and practices could not accept the UCC's 30- second commercial "because of the political nature of its content," according to a sales associate's e-mail response on March 30.


When asked for an official reason, MTV Networks responded, "Our guidelines state we will not accept religious advertisements that may be deemed as disparaging to another religion."

Ron Buford, director of the UCC's Stillspeaking Initiative, says the 1.3-million-member denomination's four-year identity campaign was created after focus group testing revealed the depth to which people felt alienated or rejected by organized religion. The church's new "ejector" ad uses humor to convey the message, "God doesn't reject people. Neither do we."

"I guess the idea of gay TV doesn't really mean it's your community's network," Buford told United Church News. "It's just something that's targeted at you to sell product."

On a completely unrelated matter, "The L Word" jewelry and perfume lines are now avalible.