Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 1994)
ju st out ▼ do co m b o r 10, 1004 ▼ 13 local news * Change w ith the ichael Kelly says it was simply the right thing to do. Kelly, the editor of the Tigard Times, a weekly mainstream newspaper (circula tion: 5,500) serving the Portland suburb of Tigard, says when a local mother ap proached the Times to ask it to print her gay son’s wedding announcement, Times staff barely blinked. While a few area newspapers readily print gay and lesbian The same cannot be said, however, for the state’s wedding and birth notices, The Oregonian lags behind supposed newspaper of record. The Oregonian, which continues to adhere to its policy of banning same-sex announcements. by Inga Sorensen “It is our very strong feeling that our paper Penny and Jerry Liebertz, should be inclusive and representative of the com Jim' s proud parents, munity at large, and gays and lesbians are a part of flank the happy couple our community,” says Kelly, who has been editor of the Tigard Times for the past five years. Times Publications, which is partly owned by Denny Smith, a conservative Republican who recently made an unsuccessful bid to become governor, publishes several community weeklies including the Tigard Times. “To the best of my knowledge this was the first Oregonian's justification time we had been approached to print a gay wed for its exclusionary policy ding announcement,” says Kelly. “We simply felt a “smoke screen.” that if we are going to print heterosexuals’ an “Since when do news nouncements, then we should also print gay papers only cover govern people’s announcements. It wouldn’t be right to ment-sanctioned activi exclude gay citizens.” ties or relationships? The announcement, which ran in the Times' That’s just an excuse for Nov. 10 issue, featured news of the Oct. 1 wedding a newspaper’s homo of Seattle residents Jim Liebertz, a vice president phobia,” he says. The and marketing manager with Washington Mu Journal began running tual Bank, and Dr. Felix Marcial, a dentist. gay and lesbian wedding More than 350 family and friends traveled announcements two years from across the nation and Puerto Rico to \ ago, after a gay couple share in the couple’s celebration. Like many came to the paper asking ( e l e h r t i l l 011 newlyweds, the duo sought to share the joy it to do so. ous news of their union with the community at “There was absolutely large by having their wedding announcement no question we would do printed in the newspaper. In this case, Liebertz it,” says Pyle. "In our edi and Marcial submitted an announcement to the torials we had always argued for equal treatment of Seattle Times, which printed it for a fee. gay people. How could we then deny them equality Liebertz, who grew up in Portland and whose on our own wedding pages?” parents currently live in Tigard, also hoped The The same can be asked of The Oregonian, Oregonian would print the announcement. which on its own editorial pages has advocated on Liebertz thought to himself, " The Oregonian behalf of equal treatment for gay men and lesbians. published the wedding announcements of five During the Ballot Measure 13 campaign, the of my siblings, why should my request be treated newspaper urged voters to reject the anti-gay and any differently?” -lesbian rights initiative because it would require “This was the happiest moment of my life and that “gays be treated differently and less favorably, I wanted to share that with everybody,” says the not equally.” And two years ago. The Oregonian 33-year-old Liebertz. “I grew up in Portland. I ran an unprecedented series of editorials urging a Liebertz went to college there. I know tons of people in “no” vote on Ballot Measure 9. Felix Marc«» — " ... Oregon. I mean, this was my hometown newspa Editorial page editor Robert Landauer won per.” Liebertz, who was in Seattle at the time, numerous awards for those editorials (in fact, he asked his mother to call The Oregonian to request has the series framed and displayed in his office), »S3 that the couple’s announcement be published. which maintained the estimated 280,000 lesbians “There wasn’t any nastiness in their tone. They and gay men in Oregon were not the “limp-wristed, just simply said that they wouldn’t do that,” says swish, extravagantly effeminate gay men” nor the £ .... . * Noiilw« ■> » ' „ „ » . n » * * il«' I '1 i '" '1 „1 nw iV r'l»* 70-year-old Penny Liebertz, who, along with her “sneering, domineering, deep-voiced, necktie- n. A t * * * Mr’” husband Jerry, was on hand for her youngest son’s wearing, hairy-lipped lesbians” the Oregon Citi ...... « « I Sc*«- „„.I I n i m - * > " wedding. “I am really proud of the Tigard Times zens Alliance said they were. No, Landauer ar ’i5r.5Ts.-r for what they did. They treated my son fairly.” gued, most lesbians and gay men are “so much like Says Kelly: “This is simply a reflection of what you: civil, modest, fair and constructive in the is going on in society. A newspaper has a respon workplace, at public events and on the playing fields; nurturing as parents. Like you, they are sibility to be objective and recognize this rather community builders, not wreckers.” than holding on to an unreal notion of what society T l * - w » ------------- Yet even if gay men and lesbians are “so much is like.” nal, the Austin-Ameri- like you [i.e., heterosexual]” and are the “commu Donna Red Wing is the national chapter coor can Statesman, the Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer, the nity builders” The Oregonian claims they are, the dinator for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Everett (Wash.) Daily Herald, the Greenfield newspaper certainly is not treating them equally. Defamation, a national organization that monitors (Mass.) Recorder, the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel, the “We print wedding announcements as a com anti-gay and -lesbian bias in mainstream media. Minneapolis Tribune, the Northampton (Mass.) munity service,” says Hobart. “We do this for Red Wing, the former executive director of the Hampshire Gazette, the Marin (Calif.) Indepen members of the community who want to share Portland-based Lesbian Community Project, says, dent Journal, the San Jose Mercury News, and the important information about their lives.” When “Five years ago it would have been considered Seattle Times. Some papers, such as the Seattle asked if this community service is only available to revolutionary for a mainstream newspaper to print Times, run heterosexuals’ announcements for free, heterosexual members of the community, Hobart a same-sex wedding announcement. That’s simply but make gay and lesbian couples pay for that replied, “That’s right.” not the case anymore. If The Oregonian is worried opportunity. The Liebertz-Marcial rejection is not an iso about being on the cutting edge it doesn’t have to, Sue Hobart, senior features editor for The lated case. (Hobart first told us The Oregonian because many papers across the country are al Oregonian, says her paper does not print same-sex receives requests to print same-sex announcements ready doing this.” wedding announcements because those relation “regularly,” but quickly switched it to “periodi Among the newspapers that have abolished the ships are not legal. In an earlier interview, George cally.”) In 1992, Portland resident Dr. Mary Ann practice of discriminating against gay men and Pyle, editor of the Salina Journal, a daily newspa Humphrey, author, educator and former cable tele lesbians who are seeking the same treatment as per (circulation: 30,000) in Kansas, called The vision host, and her partner of nearly a decade, opposite-sex couples are: the Salina (Kan.) Jour- M Times ,§ii§s^ 25 ==: 1 Itg U S ls ^ * filled out The Oregonian's required wedding an nouncement form and sent it in with a photo of their commitment ceremony, which had been officiated by a minister. "We waited and waited but nothing was printed,” says Humphrey. “Finally I called and was told that I shouldn’t expect anything to appear because The Oregonian won’t print gay commit ment announcements. I was very upset, but I’m getting older now and have to pick and choose my battles.” In another case, Jocelyn Somers, a Portland attorney, and her partner of more than seven years, Kathleen McNaughton, a real estate agent, hoped to publicly celebrate the birth last year of their son. Like other proud mothers, Somers filled out the paperwork that is circulated among parents after the births of their babies. The form asks who the parents are, as well as information about the new born. That information is then passed on to various newspapers for public announcement purposes, “I filled out the form and it included both my name and Kathleen’s name. When it appeared in The Oregonian. Kathleen’s name had been re moved. I was livid,” says Somers. "I called up and asked what happened. I was told by [Oregonian staffer) Jerry Boone that they didn’t print informa tion about same-sex couples. I asked him whether they would have printed the information in full if it included a man’s name. He said yes. I then asked whether they would have bothered to check to see if that information were factual. He told me no, and said The Oregonian automatically printed infor mation if it included a man’s name. I said to him, ’So I could have written down that the father was Jerry Boone of Donald Duck and you would have printed it?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ ” Somers, who was still weak from a caesarean section, chose not to pursue the issue, although she remained outraged. “This was supposed to be a happy time for us, and this was making it miser able. I decided not to pursue it, but I am really sorry that I don’t have |an Oregonian] clipping of my son’s birth announcement for his scrapbook. We are proud of our relationship and we wanted to share the news about our son’s birth with the whole community, yet The Oregonian forced us into silence.” Somers says the announcement did run intact in the Beaverton Valley Times (circulation: 7,2(H)), another weekly newspaper published by Times Publications. Liebertz, a Portland State University graduate who worked at First Interstate Bank of Oregon for nine years before moving to Seattle in 1988, adds: “Saying I was disappointed is an understatement. This was the most important day of my life.... My mother has clippings of all my other siblings’ wedding announcements, and now there’s this gaping hole where mine should have been.” For her part, Oregonian editor Sandra Rowe says, “As society changes, so do newspapers. Maybe we should take a look at this whole issue, but I’m not going to predict when or if there will be any changes.” The Times' Kelly says his paper has received about a dozen calls from readers protesting the inclusion of a gay couple in its wedding section; a half dozen readers canceled their subscriptions. One woman even left an anonymous message on Penny and Jerry Liebertz’s answering machine saying she was discontinuing her subscription to the Tigard Times because of the “vulgar” wedding announcement it printed. Penny responded by writ ing a letter to the Times thanking the newspaper staff for their open-mindedness. “A newspaper prints many requests without inquiring as to the type of wedding or commitment ceremony, religious or other,” she wrote. “News papers do not only print items that meet with one person’s approval, or there would be little to print.” In addition, two readers called to thank the Times. Kelly says, “We’re not being heroic, we’re just doing our job." When asked whether the paper will continue to print same-sex announcements, he answers, “Yes, of course.” ei