Gene Shalit, who went to my highschool, is a homophobe

[yesthattom]

http://capwiz.com/njlgc/issues/alert/?alertid=8353591&type=CU

Comments

[qnetter]

...which must make family gatherings with his son attending uncomfortable as well:

Peter Shalit, MD, PhD - Internal Medicine (HIV/AIDS)

Dr. Peter Shalit is an internist who specializes in HIV care. Since 1990, he has been in private practice in Seattle, caring for several hundred patients infected with HIV Infection. He is also an attending physician at Harborview Madison Clinic, a county HIV clinic affiliated with the University of Washington.

Dr. Shalit is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington and Medical Director for the HIV Research Program at Swedish Medical Center.


Professional Affiliations

American College of Physicians
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association
Physicians for AIDS Care
Physicians for Social Responsibility

Selected Publications/Books

1. 1. Health Care of the Gay Male Patient, by Joseph O'Neill and Peter Shalit, in Primary Care, Volume 19, Number 1, March 1992, Pages 191-201.
2. Living Well, the Gay Man's Essential Health Guide, Peter Shalit, Alyson Publications, 1998.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Was there a link to a transcript or clip or something of the broadcast? I didn't notice one.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Yup. On GLAAD's web site.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Are you sure they're related?

[ayse.livejournal.com]

That's nothing. I'd be willing to guess that most people who went to my high school were homophobes.

:)

[qnetter]

Yes -- I know he's Gene's son. (He's my friends' primary care physician.)

http://www.24hourscholar.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_1998_Dec_22/ai_53409185

Shalit learned about honesty from his outspoken father, film critic Gene Shalit. But while his famous dad advocates honesty, Shalit says it wasn't always that way. "He didn't like the fact that I was out of the closet in medical school," he recalls. "He worried about what effect being so open would have on my success in life. I had to tell him that I couldn't not be out. The nicest thing about him is, he's so supportive and easy to educate, and he eventually saw things my way."

[freeko.livejournal.com]

I rather he be honest then be P.C. Seriously though the Fab 5 should give him a makeover. The Beard, Glasses and Fro have to go.

[qnetter]

LOMLFOML's comment over lunch today was that he wondered if, over the years, Gene considered Peter's boyfriends and partner(s) to be sexual predators who corrupted his poor boy...

[mhgagnon.livejournal.com]

I saw his review yesterday morning, on the Today show. My heart sank. Not because it was a crummy review (even though it was), but because of Peter.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I'm at a total loss to interpret this, not having seen Shalit's original review. It sounds like a naive misinterpretation of the film but not something that warrants a full-on action alert. Boiling it down to "Gene Shalit is a homophobe" seems like an overreaction.

Besides, my god. It's fucking Gene Shalit! It's not as if it's just suddenly right now become clear that he's actually a poorly-disguised alien from the planet Overdetoppia.

[cpj.livejournal.com]

What a shame.

The guy probably have hundreds of mustache rides back in the 70s.

(sorry if the mental image made you barf).

[qnetter]

Based on a post on the Seattle Men's Chorus list -- Peter's partner sings with them as does LOMLFOML -- it's obvious to me that the comment was inconsistent with the understanding of Gene that Peter and his partner shared. He didn't defend him, just reposted the 1999 Advocate opinion pieve in which Gene posted about how he felt about his gay son.

It's a complex situation -- I wrote Peter and his partner with a note of sympathy. I find it interesting that that's one of my first thoughts now, whereas 15 to 25 years ag I probably would have dismissed my gay brothers' pain and focused only on my outrage.

[qnetter]

The term "sexual predator" seems oddly over the top even for him.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

I just went to go watch the video on the GLAAD site and I have to say the review doesn't strike me as homophobic. It *does* strike me that that Shalit misunderstood Ennis.

What I understand from the short story, and I expect most people understand from the movie as well, is that Ennis really does love Jack but rejects him due to his fear of death by tire iron (also his job constraints and a childhood that makes me want to kick his fictional father in the nuts, but I digress). What if you don't understand Ennis's conflict, or even if you do but have a strict no-means-no-even-if-the-no-sayer-would-prefer-to-say-yes-in-a-perfect-world attitude? In that case, it seems reasonable to see Jack as the kind of guy who doesn't take no for an answer, and we don't like those guys (regardless of the gender of their targets). "Sexual predator" is a shitty choice of wording for this, no doubt, but I don't think it's *homophobic* wording.