editor's
by matt comer
matt@goqnotes.com
Out in the nev\/sroom
-A
As much as we've become accustomed to
mostly positive coverage of LGBT people and
issues by national and local news networks
and publications, there was once a time when
positive coverage might very well have been
no coverage at all.
Locally, we have people like Don King
to thank. A decades-long employee of The
Charlotte Observerand this publication's
very first editor. King worked both behind the
scenes and later publicly to advocate for fairer,
more complete coverage of LGBT people.
1986was a landmark year. That's when
Queen City Quordinators made the move to
turn its monthly newsletter. Queen City Notes,
into a monthly print newspaper! QNotes
survives to this day. Also that year, local media
was allowed for the first-time ever unrestricted
access to cover an LGBT community event
WSOC-TV, WBTV and The Observereach cov
ered a 105-person derridnstration in response
to a Charlotte visit by anti-gay researcher Paul
Cameron. And, in December 1986, King's Closet
Buster Productions aired the first episode of
its "Gay/Lesbian Forum" on Charlotte's public
access channel.
The drumbeat toward more media aware
ness and positive coverage for LGBT people
continued nationally, as well. In 1989, a land
mark study commissioned by the American
Society of Newspaper Editors took an in-depth
look at LGBT journalists in America's main
stream newsrooms. In 1990, Leroy Aarons,
a former Washington Postm'Aer and atthe
time editor of Oakland Tribune, presented the
results of the study at ASNE's national conven
tion. In doing so, he came out publicly; an
all-too-rare show of courage among journalists
of his time.
Aarons would later join with LGBT journal
ists across the country and form the National
Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. The
group heralded the needs of LGBT journos,
helped to shape LGBT-friendly corporate poli
cies in America's news companies both large
and small and gave rise to increased positive
news coverage of LGBT people and issues.
Two decades later, LGBT people continue
to leave their mark on the news industry. Out
writers, reporters and anchors are more com
mon. Yet, for many, it still takes quite the bit of
courage to come out to one's newsroom peers
and especially one's audience.
Chris Brown is a good acquaintance of
mine from our days atthe University of North
Carolina-Greensboro. There, he headed up
several news programs and even covered
my campaign for student body vice presi
dent Now, he's the Jacksonville, N.C. bureau
reporter for Greenville's WNCT Eyewitness
News 9.
On Oct 19, Brown did what many LGBT
journalists don't do — at least not so publicly.
In a report on bullying, following weeks of
coverage on gay youth suicides across the
country. Brown came out on air.
"Growing up I wasn't just picked on be
cause I'm gay, my big ears were also a target
for bullies," Brown told his audience.
Brown says his on-air coming out just
made sense. ■
"I've been watching the news just like
everybody else and I've seen what's going on
with gay teenagers," he says. "You hear these
stories about kids being bullied and tdrmented.
It's heartbreaking. You see someone like the
city councilman in Fort Worth telling people it
gets better and they need to know that. I'm a
very small part of that puzzle, but it did get bet
ter for me. I think my viewers deserve to know
who it is they are relying on for their news. It's
just a part of me. And if I can be an example for
just one person, that makes all the difference."
Brown says he was out to his colleagues
well before the report aired and he encoun
tered no resistance or hesitance from his
supervisors when he approached them with
the idea.
"From a news perspective, it's generally
shied away from to put yourself into a story,
but in this particular instance it added some
thing to the story — it made it more personal,"
Brown says. "My boss' only question was if
I was okay with it I said I was and he said,
'Have at it'"
That's phenomenal progress, especially
in an industry that hasn't always had such a
great history with our community. We're see
ing that progress play out not only in Carolina,
but across the nation. Even on national cable
networks, out gays and lesbidns are leaving
thejr mark. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has
been leading that charge in recent years.
Brown says the decision to come out in
work was a difficult one, but a decision he.
made early.
"When I graduated from college and i did
my first reporting gig, I made a decision that I
was going to be me and that was it" he says.
"I've been nothing but upfront with everybody,
even people I work with. But it was a tough de
cision. I went back and forth on it Are people
going to think I will lean a certain way politi
cally? Are they going to think I can't be fair?"
Brown says he sees the day where rt's no
longer an issue.
"I think the landscape is changing," he
says. "What it means to be gay is evolving. I
hope that overtime it becomes much less a
taboo and just another part of life."
I, too, hope for that day and I stand with
Brown in working to shape that future. While
he carries a camera and microphone. I'll carry
a notepad and pen. Combined with the efforts
of LGBT and ally journalists across the country,
small ripples of progress will coalesce into
waves of change — change that started with
folks like King and Aarons in the 1980s. It's their
legacy we carry, and it's one I'm damn proud to
be a partof.:;
commentary
by Tyler DeVere :: tdevere@goqnotes.com
Anti-bullying efforts needed for schools, and society
"When the message out there is so
horrible that to be gay you can get killed for
it, we need to change the message," Ellen
DeGeneres poignantly explained on her show
after the 2008 killing of 15-year-old Lawrence
King. By the same token, if the message is so
horrible that you should kill yourself tor it, we
need to change the message.
As important as it is to tell today's kids "it
gets better" on an individual level, it's also
critical that we as a society become better for
the benefit of those kids. For the LGBT youth
who are in hostile environments, we need to
tell them that it won't always be so difficult,
that their lives will improve. But, we also need
to reduce the hostility in those environments.
Achieving this goal is by no means an
easy task, nor is there an even remotely
simple solution. From sensationalistic media
and homophobic politicians to the language
in schools and stereotypes that dehuman
ize us, there are clearly areas screaming for
improvement.
While there are truly positive media im
ages and figures for LGBT youth, there are
also many negative ones and the impact of
the positive images can seem far removed
and irrelevant to a young person who has no
similar example in his or her own life. The real
conditions for many of these adolescents are
hateful politicians, teachers and even parents.
When combined with constant repetitions of
"that's so gay" and "what a fag" from sup
posed friends — and there is no one standing
against such language — a very bleak outlook
is created for youth who think that's all the
world has to offer them.
Stereotypes also play a major role in
building latent (or not so latent) homophobia
in our culture. Many people, even those
who comprise the LGBT community, accept
stereotypes as reality, despite their severe
consequences. When stereotypes about a
large community become perceived as true,
as they are by many, we lose the very thing
that makes us human — our individuality.
When we're all seen as monolithic, we're not
recognized as fully human and that results in
a fundamental lack of respect toward us.
. Atthe It Gets Better candlelight vigil held
on Oct 11 in Charlotte, hundreds took hand
in reaching out to struggling LGBT youth to
tell them that suicide is not the answer. I am
proud to have been a small part of that, but I
hope attendees also left with another mission
going forward: standing up and speaking out
against homophobia wherever, whenever and
however it manifests itself.::
— Tyler DeVere is an editorial intern
with qnotes.
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