Gay Cable Network

Lou Maletta, who founded the Gay Cable Network in 1982, when the gay rights movement was not receiving broad media attention, died on Nov. 2 in Kingston, N.Y. He was 74.

The cause was liver cancer, said Luke Valenti, his companion of 37 years.

The network had its roots as a weekly program called “Men & Film” on Channel 35 on Manhattan Cable Television. Mr. Maletta showed gay pornographic movies that he had edited to make less explicit, and the programming grew to become a forum for the range of issues facing gay people.

There had been gay-oriented television shows before the Gay Cable Network was started. But Mr. Maletta’s enterprise was considered the first to produce weekly news, entertainment, political commentary, cultural and health-related programs, and it distributed them to public-access channels in 20 cities (at first on videotapes he mailed).

“It was critical to the L.G.B.T. rights movement,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor at Hunter College who has written extensively on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. “Mainstream television wasn’t rushing to cover the movement, and public access cable provided entree for social and political groups that were traditionally excluded. Lou Maletta’s programming allowed voices of the gay community to speak for themselves.”

Among those voices was Andy Humm, who is now the co-host, with Ann Northrop, of “Gay U.S.A.,” a weekly one-hour cable news program produced by Manhattan Neighborhood Network and distributed nationally. The show originated on the Gay Cable Network, which Mr. Maletta closed when he retired in 2001.

“Lou had this grand vision of a 24-hour gay cable network,” Mr. Humm said. “That didn’t happen for him.” Still, the continuation of “Gay U.S.A.” and the introduction in 2005 of Logo, a primarily gay-oriented 24-hour cable channel that is part of MTV Networks, have in part fulfilled his dream.

“Lou laid the groundwork,” Mr. Humm said. “He developed news programming, entertainment, sports. He had a guy come on every week and talk about the gay bowling league.”

Mr. Maletta’s network began in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and he enlisted officials from New York City’s health department and Gay Men’s Health Crisis, a nonprofit AIDS advocacy group, to provide segments. From 1984 to 2000, he provided coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, interviewing political leaders from the floor and gay rights demonstrators in the streets. Those were among the dozens of local and national protests the network covered.

In 1988, Mr. Maletta traveled with a team of volunteer correspondents to the Republican convention in New Orleans, by way of Mississippi.

“He was this tremendous character, generally wearing spandex, a black leather jacket, the Gay Network T-shirt and a cowboy hat,” Mr. Humm recalled. “Not unusual in New York, but try going to a Hardee’s in Mississippi on the way to a convention. I didn’t think we were going to get out alive.”

People just stared, Mr. Humm said.

Louis Phillip Maletta Jr. was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 14, 1936, the only child of Louis and Mary Maletta. After serving in the Army, he became a freelance photographer and a travel agent, booking gay cruises. He was outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in summer 1969 when a police raid helped ignite the gay liberation movement, said Mr. Valenti, his companion.

In addition to Mr. Valenti, Mr. Maletta is survived by a daughter from a marriage that ended in divorce.

What motivated him to take his programming beyond its sexually explicit origins, Mr. Maletta told Gay City News in 2009, was watching a 30-year-old friend “turning into someone who looked 90 six months after being diagnosed” with what at one time was called gay-related immune deficiency.

Gay Cable Network (GCN) was one of the first cable television networks which openly appealed to a gay and lesbian audience. It was established in 1982 in New York City by Lou Maletta, was broadcast on Manhattan Cable Television channel 35 and wound down operations in 2000–2001.[1] It initially broadcast a series titled Men in Films, which explored male erotica, and evolved to host a wider variety of content, including news and current affairs programs which covered political developments affecting the LGBT community and the AIDS/HIV epidemic. Throughout its time, GCN provided coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, with on-floor correspondents interviewing candidates and delegates, as well as coverage of the 1987 and 1993 LGBT rights marches on Washington. A documentary aired on GCN, Out in the 90's, earned the network a Special Recognition Award at the inaugural GLAAD Media Awards in 1990.

In 2009, New York University acquired from Maletta some 6,100 VHS tapes of GCN broadcasts from throughout its 19 years of operation for preservation.[2]


Contents
1 People
2 Programs
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
People
George Bouzetos, hosted and co-created Pride and Progress and helmed coverage of the 1988, 1992 and 2000 party conventions, currently host of Gay USA with Ann Northrop.
Kostis Chatzidakis (Selfed named as "The short one"), correspondent with GCN until his death in 1991. His brother Allen negotiated the preservation of GCN's archives with NYU.
Programs
Gay USA (1985 as Pride and Progress - present)
Men in Films
Be Our Guest
In the Dungeon with "Slave Dale"
Good Morning, Gaymerica!
Men in Rims
Inside/Out
The Closet Case Show
Lovie TV
Men for Men
Out! in the 90's
Out on Wednesdays
Dyke TV
Party Talk
Stonewall Place After Dark
Way Out!

Under the direction of Lou Maletta, and broadcast on Manhattan Cable Television Channel 35, Gay Cable Network (GCN) began in 1982 and stopped production in 2001. GCN was the first network in the nation to openly appeal to a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender audience. GCN initially broadcast a series titled "Men in Films," which explored the gay male image in media and male erotica, and the network soon evolved to host a wider variety of content, including news and current affairs programs which covered political developments affecting the LGBT community and the AIDS/HIV epidemic. Throughout its time, GCN provided coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, with on-floor correspondents interviewing candidates and delegates, as well as coverage of the 1987 and 1993 LGBT rights marches on Washington. A documentary aired on GCN, "Out in the 90's," earned the network a Special Recognition Award at the inaugural GLAAD Media Awards in 1990.