Advocacy group abruptly closes, dismisses director

Mike Wilke, the man behind Commercial Closet Association, an association that promotes positive images of gays in advertising, is out of work after being dismissed and his organization abruptly shut down.

Wilke, founder and former executive director of the Commercial Closet Association, said the organization’s board voted two weeks ago to close and merge with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Commercial Closet Association is a New York City based non-profit organization, founded in 2001, to educate and influence the $1.1 trillion annual worldwide advertising market ($128 billion in the US alone) to foster understanding, respect and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people to achieve a more accepting society and successful business results.

Wilke, who started the Commercial Closet Association in 2001, said the shutdown left him unemployed and the organization’s other full-time employee to work part time. Wilke said as part of the planned merger with GLAAD, he was formally offered and had accepted a program director position.

But he said amidst the Commercial Closet Association shutdown, he’s been unable after a week of attempts to confirm with GLAAD President Neil Giuliano that the employment offer stands.

The Commercial Closet Association announced in a Tuesday press release that it would integrate its programs and operations with GLAAD, which promotes positive images of gays in media.

GLAAD under fire

GLAAD is under fire from various newspapers and bloggers for giving an award to "As the World Turns." The Los Angeles Times was the first newspaper to cry "foul" against GLAAD.

Not only should GLAAD be publicly denounced for giving an award to "As the World Turns," but it should be pressured to rescind the prize.

It's an outrage that an organization devoted to battling gay discrimination in the media would honor a TV show that blatantly and notoriously discriminates against gay romance.

Not only are the program's gay lovers Luke (Van Hansis) and Noah (Jake Silbermann) forbidden to kiss on the CBS soap series, but they were, apparently, even forbidden to kiss at the GLAAD Awards where they were being honored for nondiscrimination! When journalists asked the actors to smooch for the cameras on the red carpet, Hansis and Silbermann coyly dodged the request and — adding insult to injury — would only pucker up on either side of the actress who portrays Noah's bogus green-card wife on the show. When the request for the gay kiss was channeled through reps for "ATWT," it was clear from their grumblings, evasive replies and conspiratorial whispers among themselves that they were the ones squashing it.

"As the World Turns" reps don't admit that they discriminate, but, well, they kind of do, too. Jeannie Tharrington, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble Productions, which produces the CBS series, concedes that recent changes in how Luke and Noah are portrayed were "because of some of the feedback that we've gotten, and because of what we thought was best for the show creatively."