Ads Show API LGBT Couples
October 31, 2007
NEW YORK — Actor Alec Mapa is a unicorn, or so he says.
Mapa used the tongue-in-cheek metaphor in 2005 to describe his unique role on UPN’s sitcom Half & Half as not only the sole Filipino actor in prime time, but also the first gay Asian regular in a sitcom. He has since translated his success on Half & Half into characters on other hit TV shows, such as Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty.
It is for these reasons that the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation tapped Mapa and his partner, Jamison Hebert, to be the face of their new print marketing campaign designed to increase visibility for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people within the Asian Pacific Islander community.
Announced on October 10th, the campaign is scheduled to run throughout October in API media outlets nationwide to encourage API LGBT community members to share stories about their love and committed relationships.
The ads feature photographs of Alec and Jamison at various highlights throughout their relationship, including their commitment ceremony. The ads will appear in AsianWeek, Asian Fortune and Filipinas — publications with a combined circulation of close to 100,000.
Mapa’s breakthrough accomplishments on film and stage over his 20 years in show business serve as a rallying point, not only for Asian Americans and LGBT individuals, but also those who fit both categories, hence GLAAD’s enthusiasm in having Mapa and Hebert as the focal point of their project.
“This media campaign was designed to amplify the dreams and aspirations that countless same-sex couples share within the community,” said Andy Marra, GLAAD’s Asian-Pacific Islander media strategist. “We hope that Alec’s story and similar ones generated from the campaign will visibly demonstrate that love and commitment are values held by everyone regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
LGBT issues have traditionally been a sensitive subject in the API community, as sexuality is rarely discussed in Asian families.
But API press coverage of LGBT issues has been increasing in recent years, as dialogue on sexual orientation and gender identity gradually became less proscribed, especially among the younger and more liberal demographic.
Mapa’s acting roles on national television can be seen as another, very visible example of this progressive movement in the media.
“I’m a gay boy from San Francisco on a network situation comedy show, and I’m Filipino,” Mapa said in a 2005 interview with AfterElton.com. “A career like that for someone like me would have never happened before, so I’m thrilled.”
The GLAAD print campaign targeting the API community is the final installment of three launched this year, with previous campaigns geared toward communities of African descent and the Spanish-language speaking population.
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4 Responses to “Ads Show API LGBT Couples”
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Like those who proceeded him on such programs as “Will and Grace,” Alex Malpa’s characters (esp. on “Half and Half”) are invariably cliched gay male stereotypes - over-styled, over-coifed and “over the top.” How one can claim that he’s “out and proud” when the characters he plays are one-dimensional, superficial and based upon homophobic constructions is beyond me.
I really don’t see how this constitutes progress in depictions of gay male characters on television. If anything, Malpa reinforces homophobic stereotypes of his gay brethren and thus contributes to their oppression.
Hey, Christian:
The guy’s, gay’s?, name is AleC MAPA, without the “l” as in Hell?
And I think you meant “preceded,” non?
Hate to be didactic. Or pseudoprofessorial?
Oh, well, almost all of us mistype.
Francois Eng
P.S.: Now that Emil appears to have disappeared off these “pages,” is this guy a new target? And may I remind you that it is Gollywood that confects stereotypes, and Asian thespians wanting to eat and survive must play “roles” that include sons of the gun, Charley the Chan, and daughters of the Asian Revolution, like Anna May to Fu Manchu, Yeah, THAT long ago. And, by the way, maybe now that the “leftish” Screen Writers Guild may “walk out,” guys like that Lin kid could submit NONstereotypical characterizations. But that would be finking, wouldn’t it. I’m not sure about that, because I never finked, like some Right-wing idols of yore. Today? Surely, not Jane Fonda. And whereas, again, I “agree” with much of what you say, I demur on the “one-dimensional” unless you agree to apply that to your own comments, and, no, I have no interest in a “cat”-fight, or even a doggy one. Have you looked into a mirror of late?
I have, and I am discouraged. Indeed.
Frank Eng, do you spend the entire day and night posting ill-conceived replies to others’ posts? Yes, I’ve looked in the mirror, and while I could stand a little more hair on my head, I’m satisfied with what I see. You’re pedantic, you trivialize every online discussion in which you participate, and you seeming couldn’t make a coherent contribution to any of them if your life depended on it. And attacking Jane Fonda, who long ago ceased her political activism, is so passe. Get a life, mate!
Dear Christian Simonetti:
Ummm, yes, I spend far too much time and energy, what little is left thereof, do I hear a cheer? or is that another jeer?, posting and trivializing, just like you?
Attacking Jane Fonda? No, that was Arthur Hu.
Remember which “side” I’m on. Or profess.
But, I have a personal question for you, and that, mind you, AFTER sending sincere greetings to your mom, who, you said, if I recall, was “shocked” at the virulent “racism” alive in today’s America, I was about to be facetious again and say “Amurrika.”
The question is, and it may be impertinent or even irrelevant here:
Who do you work for?
I hope not the FBI, which is as Hydra-headed as it is clumsy, bumbling?, that too, in not listening or paying attention to lieutenants in their own ranks in re 9/11.
Pedantic? Likely guilty.
Incoherent? I beg to differ.
And for your tonsure, may I recommend fatty fish oils?
Frank Eng
P.S.: I am delighted, nay, thrilled, that not only is Emil still on staff to riposte Fox’s Malkin, another FBI plant?, oh, sorry, you have yet to respond, but that AsianWeek’s Beltway correspondent reports, this issue, the progress of Filipina-Americans, pedantically and otherwise.
P.P.S.: And you and I must, for the public weal, simply stop meeting like this. In “public.” Penumbrally so, but public nonetheless, with apologies for the pedantics, accent on the antics.