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SOUTHERN
NEWS
Two men bash lesbian in Buckhead
PAGE 3
Neighbors protest AIDS home in
Greenville, SC PAGE 4
Helms lashes out at treatment of
anti-gay Ag. Dept, employee PAGE 7
GLAAD unites LA, NY chapters in new
national group page is
FEATURES
The radical right runs a slick
information machine, and gay groups
are struggling to catch up rmn
Naval officer Dirk Selland
discharged for being gay PAGE 19
OUT & ABOUT
Lesbian romance novelist Anyda
Marchant reflects on her 83 years
PAGE 28
k.d. lang and Andy Bell team up on
lang's new disc PAGE 32
VOIUME 7/NUMBER 24 PLEASE RECYClf 75C WHERE SOLS
THIS The Intowner's Guide to
ISSUE Hotlanta River Expo '94
TBS adds sexual onem
its equal-employment policy
Atlanta—The 6,500 worldwide employees of At
lanta-based Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc. have
a new guarantee—that they will be protected from
discrimination in the workplace if they happen to be
gay-
Ted Turner’s entertainment empire—which in
cludes the Atlanta Braves and Hawks, World Cham
pionship Wrestling, WTBS, and cable television
channels SportsSouth, CNN, TNT, and The Cartoon
Network—officially joined over 150 other major
American corporations in adding sexual orientation
to its Equal Employment Opportunity statement on
July 28.
“Turner Broadcasting is firmly committed to pro
moting diversity in the workplace,” said a statement
issued by the company. “The Company’s policy state
ment ensures that race, gender, religion, national
origin, age, disability status or sexual orientation do
not affect employment practices at Turner Broad
casting.”
Allan De Niro, president of Turner’s Human Re
lations Department, said changing the EEO state
ment came out of a nearly two-year process that
culminated last fall with a company-wide survey on
diversity issues.
“That survey had both quantitative statements
...and a question asking how people felt about their
jobs,” De Niro said. “We got back what everyone
who works in the survey field said was an exceed
ingly big response [just under 50%]. We felt it was a
pretty representative sample [of our employees].”
. From that survey, Turner compiled a list of 21
action plans—with time lines.
“What perhaps was a little unique [about the
plans] is that every one of the 21 was not only
specific but time-sensitive,” De Niro said.
Along with such steps as building a company-
owned child care center for its employees, adding
sexual orientation to the EEO statement was on that
list. And its “due date” was July 1994.
Gay Turner employees were not content to let the
process play out in its own time, however. What was
a first a handful of employees has now grown to two
dozen &nder the name TurnOut—Turner Employees
for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns.
‘To give credit where it’s due, the employee
group was initiated at last year’s gay pride by Robin
Kemp (a CNN news writer),” said Gareth Fenley, a
Headline News writer and TumOut spokesperson.
“She brought literature from [AT&T’s lesbian/gay/
bisexual group LEAGUE] to Tom Johnson, the CNN
president. He was the first person to say go for it.”
But the group was slow growing and did not pick
up steam until late last fall.
“A big hurdle was announcing publicly that we
were going to have a meeting,” Fenley said. “Every
thing had been word of mouth before.”
But with an official OK from management,
TumOut held an open meeting this spring with di
versity trainers from AT&T’s LEAGUE. Fenley
called the meeting “a breakthrough,” and after it,
TurnOut was lobbying hard for the EEO policy
change.
“People were very willing to sit and talk with
us,” said David Salyer, a CNN graphic artist and
TumOut spokesperson. “I feel very good about the
way we were treated.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6