[Photocopy of the Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1982] Page: 7 of 20
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behind the times-in its attitude toward, and news treatmer
of, gays. Interestingly, a decade ago the paper at least con
pelled its readers to re-examine their attitudes towar
homosexuality by publishing Merle Miller's Sunday Mag
azine article entitled "What It Means To Be a Homosex
ual." Miller, a respected television writer, was also the au
thor of Only You, Dick Daring!, a classic satire about ho'
networks work; the appearance of his article on January 17
1971, marked the first time that an American with Miller'
kind of credentials had come out in public.
Miller's recollections of how the piece came to be as
signed are a useful reminder of an era when gays were ju
beginning to coalesce for political action in the wake of th
so-called Stonewall riots. (Gay Pride Week commemorate
the three days of confrontation between police and gays tha
began on June 28, 1969, when the police raided a Green
early 1970s it ran some unflinching reporting on the blocking of,
gay-rights bill by City Council Majority Leader Tom Cuite, a.
outspoken homophobe who still has the legislation bottled up
Once a Cuite spokesman asked me if I was going to do anothe
story on "the fag bill." I said yes. and the story I wrote describe(
his characterization of the bill. When my story appeared. "fag'
had been changed to "gay." I immediately protested to Warrer
Hoge, then the metropolitan editor, arguing that if an enemy o
civil rights legislation referred to a "nigger" bill or a "kike" bill
his slur would be part of the story. Warren put "fag" back in foi
the late editions.
Joe Nicholson at the Postnt
n-
d
I-
w
7,
'swich Village gay bar called the Stonewall Inn.) "In 1970,"
says Miller, "I was having lunch with two editors from The
New York Times who were discussing a vicious piece in
Harper's magazine by Joseph Epstein [now editor of The
American Scholar]. Epstein said that if he had his way he'd
wish homosexuals off the face of the earth.* And the Times
editors, both liberals, expressed approval of the piece. It* What Epstein wrote in "Homo/Hetero, The Struggle For Sexual
Identity," the cover article of the September 1970 Harper's, was:
'If I had the power to do so, I would wish homosexuality off the
St face of this earth. 1 would do so because I think that it brings
e infinitely more pain than pleasure to those who are forced to live
s with it; because I think there is no resolution for this pain in our
t lifetimes . . .; and because . . . I find myself completely incapable
- of coming to terms with it."
a Mrs. Schiff's editorials supported the gay-rights bill, but she
n was less supportive when I raised the issue of discrimination on her
. own staff. At a Newspaper Guild meeting in 1973, 1 moved that
r our contract outlaw discrimination against gays. After some de-
d bate, the motion passed, but when, on March 30, the union pres-
" ented the proposal to Sidney Orenstein, Mrs. Schiffs chief labor
n negotiator, it was rejected.
f After Rupert Murdoch bought the Post, in 1976, its editorials
fell silent on gay issues. Coverage of gay news now is more ex-
r tensive and certainly bolder, though rarely positive; frequently it is
derogatory. One reads about a "gay arsonist" in Las Vegas; one
does not read stories about a "heterosexual arsonist" in the Bronx.
Nor is the Post generally inclined to report some of the important,
though undramatic, stories covered by the Daily News and the
electronic media, such as beatings of gays by homophobes.
Neither the Post nor the Daily News can be said to be eager to
cover gay news, but both stop short of the phobic behavior of The
New York Times. The Times will not print the word "gay," and it
goes out of its way to avoid using the word "homosexual." For
example, the gay-killing spree on November 19, 1980, that domi-
nated the front pages of the Post and News was placed by the
Times in its second section. The Times's thirteen-and-a-half-inch
story on page B I reduced the massacre to a two-bit police blotter
account. The paper did no separate or sidebar stories on the gay
community's memorial services and candlelight procession for the
victims - all of which were extensively covered by the tabloids
and the electronic media. Neither the word "gay" nor the word
"homosexuals" appeared in a Times headline to indicate the
crime's social significance. The Times mentioned a public state-
ment by Mayor Koch that the shootings were "deplorable" but it
did not publish the gist of the mayor's statement, prominently dis-
played in other papers, which stated: "When- acts of violence are
based on race, religion, or sexual orientation, I believe there is a
special place in hell for those who engage in such violence." Can
one imagine the Times hiding a story about Jews shot in front of a
synagogue by a crazed anti-Semite?
As an open gay, I find that my working relationships with other
reporters and editors have, if anything, improved. Two fellow re-
porters, unknown to each other, have confided to me that, while
they don't regard themselves as gay, they currently happen to be
, involved in homosexual relationships. But I am still, as far as I
know, the only open gay among the several hundred reporters and
editors at the city's three dailies, and I don't think gay news cover-
3 age will improve greatly until others come out.27
POP.
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Pierson, Ransdell. [Photocopy of the Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1982], text, 1982-03/1982-04; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1954946/m1/7/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.