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national news
Journalists pull out
Controversy prompts relocation o f NLGJA convention
▼
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Viatical Settlements
Founding Member
he National Lesbian and Gay Journal­
ists Association has decided to pull its
1995 convention from Los Angeles in
the wake of California’s approval of
an initiative cutting off public ben­
efits to undocumented aliens.
The NLGJA’s national board, at the urging of
its Southern California chapter, made the deci­
sion in solidarity with the National Association of
Hispanic Journalists, which killed plans for a
convention in San Diego.
“It was an important statement to make in
regard to human rights,”
■
says Alan Acosta,
deputy city editor of the
m m - ■)*
Los Angeles Times and
co-president of the
Southern C alifornia
chapter. “It just seemed
that we should consider
seriously what our own
role would be since the
NAHJ had pulled out of
The spirit and
Denver.”
the substance
The NAHJ moved its
1993 convention from
Denver to Washington,
D.C., after voters in
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C olorado approved
Amendment 2, which
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Why
Last November, vot­
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ers in California ap­
"“ T u r l.u..«.r <"'
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proved Proposition 187,
which denies education,
welfare and nonemer­
gency medical care to
illegal im m igrants.
Many Latino/a groups,
including the NAHJ,
view the measure as a
racist attack.
“We feel strongly
that we, and leaders of
other Latino advocacy
associations,
must
search [our] collective
conscience before send­
ing convention dollars
into a state whose voters
overw helm ingly en­
dorsed legislation de­
signed to punish un­
documented immigrants, principally those from
Spanish-speaking countries,” says NAHJ presi­
dent Gilbert Bailon of Dallas.
Acosta, also a member of NAHJ, says when
Southern California NLGJA chapter members
began discussing what they should do after the
election, sentiment was “overflowing” in favor of
asking the national board to move the convention.
But he said the NAHJ didn’t ask the group to make
the change and that returning NAHJ’s favor in
Colorado was not the sole motivation for taking
this stand.
"It was done because we believed it was the
right thing to do,” says Acosta.
National NLGJA president Roy Aarons says
T
national board members and leaders of other
chapters around the country agreed overwhelm­
ingly to the change. However, he says some were
concerned that pulling the convention would
amount to journalists taking sides on a controver­
sial issue, conflicting with the profession’s ethi­
cal standards that discourage such overt partial­
ity.
“We were concerned about that. But what we
are really doing is respecting the decision of a
fellow journalism organization,” says Aarons.
“And given the climate in California, staying
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National NLGJA president Roy Aarons
says national board members and
leaders of other chapters around the
country agreed overwhelmingly to the
change. However, he says some were
concerned that pulling the convention
would amount to journalists taking
sides on a controversial issuef
conflicting with the profession ’s ethical
standards.
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there would have been a political statement as
well.”
The event was expected to draw 800 to 1,000
people to Los Angeles, providing an economic
bounty “in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,’’
says Acosta. Now, that money and those conven­
tioneers will be going to Washington, D C., the
alternate site.
“There is a sense of disappointment. We had
put in a fair amount of work already on the
convention,” says Acosta. “But we had to look at
what was most important—our own sense of
fulfillment for hosting the convention or the issue
involved.”