Pink Tv - New French Gay Television Station Launches
(Paris) The first French language LGBT television network signed on the air today in France.
This channel is "a giant leap for television, a small step in high heels," presenter Eric Gueho
Called Pink TV, the network's founders believe there's a ready audience for the channel, and not just among France's estimated 3.5 million gays.
"Gays are speaking to the French. But not all French speak to gays. But it will come," Gueho said.
The network is available on cable and satellite television and largely financed by France's three main commercial networks.
Pink's sports presenter, Brigitte Boreale, the world's first trans sportscaster.
Boreale, wearing black high heels and a miniskirt to the launch launch said she plans to cover the often macho world of sports "with an angle of attack that's totally different."
She's also keen on marginal sports like - yes - underwater hockey. "It's totally mad," she said.
Pink founder and president, Pascal Houzelot said about 50 percent of programming will be devoted to subjects "of direct interest to gay guys and girls."
"Perhaps we'll set ourselves apart in the way we tackle subjects and the subjects that we tackle," said Houzelot. "Clearly, it will address itself in the first instance to gays but is much larger than that and will, I hope, seduce a diversified public."
As well as sports Pink will feature daily doses of dubbed versions of Wonder Woman and Queer as Folk, and X-rated films four nights a week after midnight.
The network's launch was front page news across France.
The Paris tabloid Le Parisien carried "The Gay Tide" as a banner headline Monday over a photo of a rainbow flag.
A pair of pink stilettos graced the front page of the Liberation newspaper, which endorsed the channel in an editorial titled "Good One."
"Pink is coming at the right moment," Houzelot said. "There's an evident change in mentalities. We've seen society changed. We've seen the law change ... In France, we can clearly say that gays have gone from the era of tolerance to the era of legality, which simply means equality."
France has in recent years made big strides, legally recognizing gay couples and electing a gay mayor for Paris. Homophobic remarks will be punishable with prison and fines under a draft law expected to be debated in parliament before the year's end.
But the group SOS Homophobia recorded a doubling in attacks on gays last year, with 86 cases against 41 in 2002. In January, a 35-year-old gay man was severely burned by attackers who doused him with gasoline and ignited it. Sebastien Nouchet told investigators that one of his aggressors said: "You're going to die, faggot."
The government suspended Noel Mamere from his post as a town mayor for a month after he presided over France's first gay marriage on June 5.
A court in Bordeaux in the southwest later annulled the union of Bertrand Charpentier and Stephane Chapin - a ruling the couple has vowed to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
"Marriage is great! I recommend it to everyone," Charpentier said after the July ruling. But President Jacques Chirac and his popular finance minister and would-be successor Nicolas Sarkozy are among those who have spoken against gay marriage - even though a poll earlier this year showed that a majority supports such unions.
Pridevision, the world's first gay TV network signed on two years ago in Canada. Q Television is up and running in several US cities including New York, San Francisco, and Boston. Logo, a new gay channel from Viacom is readying its launch.
Britain already has two channels on the Sky Digital platform - GayDate TV, a teleshopping channel targeting the gay community, and GayTV, a late-night soft-core porn channel. And Sweden has gay-friendly programming.
http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/10/102504FrTV.htm
Damn, it seems like recently there have been a lot of gay orientated shows airing and now even more gay demographic television stations launching.
Regards,
Lee
