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Today’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fronts

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I looked through Newseum today to see how papers covered yesterday’s repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” This is not an exhaustive showing, but a handful of examples.

San Francisco Chronicle photographer Paul Chinn’s photos from the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Center were featured on at least two fronts today.

First, he was on, as you’d expect, the Chronicle’s front page:

That woman second from left is Zoe Dunning, a retired Navy commander and a lesbian.

From Marisa Lagos’ story:

[Dunning] came out in 1993 and was one of the first people to be challenged under the policy implemented by then-President Bill Clinton.

Dunning won, but her defense strategy was later deemed unacceptable by military leaders, meaning she remained in the service but others were unable to use the same defense. Until her retirement three years ago, she was thought to be the only openly gay person serving in the U.S. military.

“I’m living proof that the presence of a gay person doesn’t damage unit cohesion or morale,” she said. “I’ve seen 14,000 people discharged since then – 14,000 lives that were changed or altered or sometimes destroyed. … After 17 years of work on this, I am witnessing the end of this destructive policy. These are tears of joy.”

For more of Lagos story, go here.

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Another photo of Dunning, also by Chinn, was featured on today’s West Hawaii Today.

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That above-the-nameplate treatment made me thinking of The Virginian-Pilot, so I checked their front. Here’s how they handled the story:

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Closer to home, The Boston Globe’s page featured a chart showing the number of homosexuals discharged from the military:

To read Mark Arsenault’s coverage, go here.

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And finally, today’s Fresno Bee was interesting. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” story was stripped on top, above a centerpiece about gay teens coming to terms with their sexuality. Those of us in newspapers know that centerpieces are planned days, if not weeks, in advance, so this timing was coincidental, though fitting.

To read Tracy Correa’s story, go here.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: “Gay” vs. “homosexual”

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Between “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and Prop 8, there are lots of gay issues (and terms) in the news. These issues tend to be difficult for many media outlets to cover, as no one wants to offend anyone. Not the same-sex couple who traveled to Canada to get married. Not the fire-and-brimstone pastor who thinks all “homosexuals and sodomites are going to hell.” Not the average guy who might not “understand the lifestyle” but nevertheless says, “I love my dead gay son.”

In some cases, pastors and randoms are interviewed for stories in which they have no real stake. There could be a series of vignettes about same-sex couples who’ve been together 17 years and fought for benefits and survived illness after illness. And then, an awkward transition…. “While these couples want to get married, not everyone agrees. Just ask Joad Cressbeckler….” To be sure, not all of these are tacked on, but it makes me wonder: How did the media cover Loving vs. Virginia back in the 1960s? How cringe-worthy would that coverage appear if we looked at it now? How similar or different is it from how the media is covering these current civil rights issues concerning gays and lesbians?

Not only are the topics controversial, even the terms are hotly debated. A 2005 Gallup poll surveying moral attitudes placed onto the lives gay and lesbian Americans showed that “homosexual” has negative connotation to it compared to “gay”:

Proving the power of language in the debate, survey responses were nine to 10 percentage points higher when the term “gay and lesbian” was used instead of “homosexual.”

Earlier this year, a CBS News/ New York Times poll found that wording was key when asking whether Americans support allowing gays to serve in the military.

In its analysis of the 2005 poll, Daniel Gonzales Ex-Gay Watch pointed out the “right of any minority group to self-determine their own descriptive terminology.” It’s no longer acceptable for black people to be referred to as “negros,” Gonzales pointed out, so gays and lesbians should not be referred to as “homosexuals,” he argued.

For what it’s worth, here’s what’s in the GLAAD Media Reference Guide:

OFFENSIVE: “homosexual” (as a n. or adj.)
PREFERRED: “gay” (adj.); “gay man” or “lesbian” (n.)
Please use “lesbian” or “gay man” to describe people attracted to members of the same sex. Because of the clinical history of the word “homosexual,” it has been adopted by anti-gay extremists to suggest that lesbians and gay men are somehow diseased or psychologically/emotionally disordered – notions discredited by both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association in the 1970s.

And from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association stylebook:

homosexual: As a noun, a person who is attracted to members of the same sex. As an adjective, of or relating to sexual and affectional attraction to a member of the same sex. Use only if “heterosexual” would be used in parallel constructions, such as in medical contexts. For other usages, see gay and lesbian.