LGBT groups, Utah station to meet about "New Normal"

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - GLAAD will join with Utah LGBT groups to present a panel discussion and screening of Ryan Murphy's upcoming NBC series "The New Normal" in light of a Salt Lake City station's decision not to air it.

The Mormon church-owned KSL-TV, which also does not air "Saturday Night Live" and last season declined to show "The Playboy Club," announced last week that it would not broadcast "The New Normal," which follows a gay couple's efforts to have a child with a surrogate's help.

Equality Utah and Utah Pride said they had arranged meetings between Utah LGBT families and executives of KSL and the station's owner, Bonneville International, to promote understanding.

In a joint statement with the advocacy organizations, KSL said it was "helpful to talk together, to better understand issues, and to be able to discuss the reasons behind our decision to not air 'The New Normal.'"

"This was not a decision we made lightly and it was not made because of any single issue including gay characters or LGBT families," the statement said. "As a communications company we make decisions every day regarding our programming and we made a decision to not broadcast this program because we feel it had a number of issues including sexually explicit content, demeaning dialogue, and inciting stereotypes."

But GLADD said that the "presence of gay characters factored into KSL's decision."

"With gay families having long been part of some of television's most well-known and popular series, KSL's decision is out of touch with a vast majority of television viewers, advertisers and critics," said GLAAD president Herndon Graddick. "Refusing to air this series about gay families sends the wrong message to LGBT families and young people in Utah."

Details about "The New Normal" will be announced soon, GLAAD said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lgbt-groups-utah-station-meet-normal-190234126.html

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