THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220305
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
A TV ad campaign that brought a threat of legal action from the Christian Broadcasting Network will be shown and discussed tonight in a forum co-sponsored by Old Dominion University.
The ad campaign - which was pulled or refused by independent stations and CNN after the threat of legal action - used video clips of Pat Robertson and other conservatives deploring homosexuality.
The advocacy group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays produced the ads, called ``Project Open Mind,'' to show that anti-gay rhetoric is related to assaults against homosexuals and high suicide rates among lesbian and gay youth.
In one of the 30-second ads, a young man is shown being beaten by a gang shouting anti-gay slurs. In another, a teenage girl is seen contemplating suicide with a handgun.
In both, the scenes are interspersed with video images of Robertson taken from his weekday television show, ``The 700 Club.''
The ads also contain statements by others expressing opposition to homosexuality or gay rights.
Tonight's program, co-sponsored by the Norfolk/South Hampton Roads chapter of P-FLAG, will ``examine the impact of the visual image on communication,'' the university said.
Jeffrey Garrett, campaign manager for the project, will show the advertisements and discuss their development and purpose.
``We wanted to say, `Wake up and join us in opposing hate speech,' '' Mitzi Henderson of Menlo Park, Calif., president of the board of P-FLAG, said of the project.
When aired in Atlanta, Houston and Tulsa, however, the ads brought a swift response from CBN's associate general counsel, Bruce Hausknecht.
``The spots contain defamatory material and cast Pat Robertson and CBN in a false light by implying that Pat advocates/promotes heinous crimes against gays or directly caused the suicide of one or more homosexual persons,'' Hausknecht wrote in a letter sent to those stations and others. ``This is outrageously false and severely damaging to the reputation of Dr. Robertson and this ministry.''
Hausknecht warned that stations airing the ads risked immediate legal action.
Subsequently, the ads were pulled or rejected by broadcast stations in targeted cities and by CNN.
It's not the first time Robertson's own video clips have been used against him by gay rights activists.
Last month, Mel White, a Texas-based gay activist who last year held a hunger strike to force a meeting with Pat Robertson, returned to Virginia Beach to show a video of Robertson making anti-homosexual remarks.
P-FLAG has said it is contemplating its own legal action, maintaining that having the ads pulled or refused may have infringed on the group's free speech rights. ILLUSTRATION: DETAILS
The program begins at 8 p.m. tonight at the University Gallery,
765 Granby St., Norfolk.
by CNB