The Continuing Saga of Celebrity Dumping and Politics

Just an FYI post -

A coalition of GLBT organizations is hosting Unity 04, a "celebration of GLBT strength and unity," which just happens to be taking place in Boston while the Democratic Convention is in town.

Anyways, Margaret Cho was lined up as the featured entertainment, but this is no longer the case. HRC now lists the featured entertainment as "special performances" by Brian McKnight and Vanessa Carlton.

Why?
Some of the organizations chickened out. After the Whoopi controvery, they're afraid of igniting another media firestorm with Cho's material. Cho's manager pointed out, though, "Dennis Miller can make gay jokes about Senators Kerry and Edwards at a recent Bush rally in Wisconsin to a complete absence of media scrutiny. No one demanded a tape of that event or alleged that his comments as a comedian might reflect poorly on Bush." She alleges the decision was made due to pressure from the DNC or the Kerry campaign, but sponsors of the event deny this.

HRC claims it was a decision made by the group sponors, but not all the groups involved agreed with the decision. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Thursday withdrew its sponsorship of Unity 2004. "We are dismayed that Margaret Cho has been disinvited," said NGLTF executive director Matt Foreman. Gay Democrats are also distancing themselves from the decision to dump Cho. "It wasn't our decision," said John Marble, a spokesperson for National Stonewall Democrats.

The Sponsors were: Bay State Stonewall Democrats, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute, Human Rights Campaign, MassEquality, National Center for Transgender Equality, National Coalition for LGBT Health, National Stonewall Democrats, The Task Force, Service Members Legal Defense Network.

You can contact HRC and tell them what you think about the decision using the info here:
http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Contact_US

You can let the NGLTF know you support (or oppose) their decision to withdraw using contact information on this page:
http://www.thetaskforce.org/contact.cfm

You can let the NSD know you support (or oppose) their decision to withdraw using contact information on this page:
http://www.stonewalldemocrats.org/contact.html

You can contact GLAAD to express your opinion and ask where they stand here:
http://www.glaad.org/contact.php

You can contact the Victory Fund's President with this email address:
chuck.wolfe@victoryfund.org

You can contact NCTE here:
http://www.nctequality.org/contact.asp

You can contact the National Coalition for LGBT Health here:
http://www.lgbthealth.net/aboutus.html

You can contact the SLDN here:
http://www.sldn.org/templates/about/record.html?section=10&record=163

first seen on dailykos.com, news story at 365gay.com, more news stories trickling in on Yahoo News.