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By: DYANA BAGBY
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LESBIAN TENNIS CHAMPION Martina Navratilova says a Pennsylvania company marketing
the gay-friendly Rainbow Card continued to use her name and pictures in “personally
inappropriate and repugnant” ways after she asked it to stop, so she is
suing the company for at least $75,000.
But officials with Do Tell Inc., the company promoting the Visa-affiliated
credit card to gay men and lesbians since 1995, say the suit and its allegations
are without merit.
The allegations “are not based in reality,” Nancy Becker, secretary
of Do Tell Inc., told Southern Voice this week.
Navratilova, Becker and Becker’s partner, Pamela Derderian, founded Do
Tell Inc. in 1995.
Becker declined further comment on Navratilova’s lawsuit.
“It’s in the hands of counsel,” she said.
In an interview published March 21 in the Philadelphia Gay News, Becker said
she and Derderian are “very disappointed that Martina made our business
and personal differences so public.”
Becker also told the newspaper she hopes to resolve the lawsuit “amicably,”
but if necessary, she and Derderian will defend themselves and Do Tell Inc.
in court.
NAVRATILOVA ORIGINALLY FILED suit March 7 in Florida, but that suit was dismissed
March 14 in favor of a similar suit seeking the same damages filed in Pennsylvania
on March 10, according to Navratilova’s attorney, John Chapman of the
Sarasota, Fla., firm Norton, Hammersley, Lopez & Skokos.
Navratilova is a Sarasota resident and originally filed suit in Tampa. Do Tell
Inc. is based in Conshohocken, Penn, and Derderian and Becker are named as defendants
in the Pennsylvania suit.
According to Chapman and the lawsuit, Navratilova began having differences
with Do Tell’s administration in early 2005. On Feb. 8, Chapman sent a
letter to Do Tell Inc. requesting the company cease and desist using Navratilova’s
likeness in marketing the Rainbow Card. When the company didn’t, she filed
suit.
At the heart of Navratilova’s complaint is the allegation that Do Tell
wanted to advertise the Rainbow Card on a television show that the tennis star
said portrayed gays in a negative light, according to Chapman.
He declined to name the TV show or identify on which channel it appears, but
did say it is currently being broadcast. The marketing of the card on the show
did not eventually occur, Chapman added.
Navratilova “just disagreed with some of the ways they wanted to market
the show. It was a television show she did not approve of,” he said.
DO TELL INC. declined comment on the number of Rainbow Card subscribers, calling
it “privileged information.”
According to the Rainbow Card Web site, the credit card has raised more than
$1.5 million for the Rainbow Endowment, a non-profit organization “committed
to promoting the health and social well being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender people.”
Funds dispersed by the endowment are derived from the use of the Rainbow Card
and through its founding sponsor, Subaru of America, which has used Navratilova
as a spokesperson in the past.
Approximately 10 cents of every purchase transaction from a Rainbow Card is
contributed directly to the Rainbow Endowment for its grant program, according
to the Web site.
Endowment officials did not return calls seeking comment about the lawsuit.
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