September 17, 2015.
It is encouraging to see some discussion on issues of homosexuality in general newspapers, often good discussion by people not considered to be gay-friendly.
What I do not see/read in LGBT publications is any serious discussion of our issues. Our own media seems as stuck on celebrities and single issues, such as marriage, as the lazy general media.
I wonder how many people read two recent columns by Cal Thomas. They appeared in my local (ArkLaTex) newspaper, The (Shreveport) Times. His view on the woman in KY was better than the few discussions I have seen in our press. I have seen better discussion on TV shows, such as John Oliver’s HBO show, on Bill Maher’s HBO show, or The Nightly Show on Comedy Central than on Rachel’s or CNN’s 360 show.
Why are there no letters to the editor in most of our publications? Do readers not give response to articles/news? The most-read part of the first movement magazine, ONE Magazine, was the letters. The editors let readers’ voices be heard. Readers exchanged thoughts with each other. It meant they had read the articles and thought about them. Today they just see pictures of the latest trans person. What dominated journalists for a decade, Stonewall, is almost forgotten — only now being mentioned because of a film.
I wonder what the people talked about at the recent convention/conference of lesbian and gay journalists. In some publications you get the impression that the only thing of interest to readers is the plays and actors — progress because for decades no actors would do anything for the movement. You would never know there are organizations working on issues and need our community to know what they are thinking and doing. I do not recall a mention of COLAGE in any publication in a year. Is PFLAG doing nothing today? Are local politicians being asked about their votes on our issues?
We need to know our enemies. Are the Koch Brothers the only ones supporting anti-gay politicians? If Hobby Lobby does not want or deserve our business, we need our press to tell us that. We can change the world as consumers. But those of us in remote/rural areas need the information.
Apparently books are still being published. So how many are discussed in our media? If there are a dozens a year, how many of us will buy even one — and know which ones are in our area of interest? At least a few publishers bother to try to reach us — I see a few ads in The Gay & Lesbian Review.
David Letterman had a list — I would be happy to see a list of the best books on a subject, the 10 best movies/films. Or the worst.
I think an editor that gets no response to their publication should ask why.
