12 ▼ m a rch 7, 1097 ▼ ju s t out
L
ooking out across his busy Hotwired
newsroom at 6 o’clock on a Monday
evening, Steven Petrow counts the
number of out, gay journalists that he
sees for the interviewer on the phone.
With just one glance, he finds three within eye
shot. Not counting himself.
Try that at most tradition-bound newspapers
or magazines, or at a big-city television affiliate.
“This is the most creative, fascinating job I’ve
ever had,” says Petrow, who produces health
programming for Hotwired, among the hottest of
the on-line magazines. “It is really comfortable to
be out.”
Cyberspace may be the new frontier for all
journalists, regardless of sexual identity, but gay
and lesbian journalists seem to be at the head of
the charging wagon train. At many of the new
Internet magazines and information services, les
bian and gay journalists are not only numerous
and out, but many of them are in positions of
power and influence.
Gay journalists who have made the leap into
cyberspace say they were drawn by the cutting-
edge technology, by the idea of being in on the
ground floor of the next big thing. They were
drawn by the nature of the on-line world, where
the unconventional is accepted and there are few
lavender ceilings. And there may also be a bit of
that inherent, undeflnable gay aesthetic at work.
"Not to be stereotypical here, but gay people
like to stay current, stay at the forefront of life in
general,” says Jeff Yarbrough, who after leaving
his post as editor-in-chief of the Advocate was
hired as a supervising producer of on-line ser
vices and interactive television at C/Net. “I think
that’s part of the reason so many gay and lesbian
people are in the on-line world.”
Part of the reason may also be geographical.
Though the Internet can be accessed from any
where in the world, there has been a particular
explosion of new on-line information services in
and around the San Francisco Bay area, which has
long been a high-tech center. So these start-ups
are fishing for writers and producers in an area
where any number of the same happen to be gay.
“The Internet has a long and proud tradition
of being a libertarian means of communication,
without a lot of governing authority. And that fits
in really well here,” says Karen Wickrc, a San
Francisco-based writer who has been working in
the computer world for more than a decade.
"There has always been more opportunity here
for people who are not traditional to make head
way.”
That acceptance of “nontraditional” journal
ists doesn’t just apply to their sexual identity.
Many mainstream media outlets might be reluc
tant to hire people who have taken unconven
tional career paths (say, for instance, alternative
or gay/lesbian media) or who don’t have a formal
journalism education. But in the on-line world,
the lines are less rigidly drawn.
Virtual equality
Why are so many gay and lesbian journalists are making
cyberspace their new home?
by Richard Shumate
Cyberspace may be
the new frontier fo r
all journalists,
regardless o f sexual
identity, but gay
and lesbian jour
nalists seem to be at
the head o f the
charging wagon
train. A t many o f
the new Internet
magazines and
information ser
vices, lesbian and
gay journalists are
not only numerous
and out, but many
o f them are in
positions o f power
and influence.
Michael Goff
“I think having an interest and aptitude and
energy for this are really more important than
anything else,” says Wickre. “I really think that
what is most important here are good writing and
critical thinking skills.”
Before coming to Hotwired, Petrow was edi
tor of the now defunct 10 Percent, a national gay
magazine based in San Francisco. He describes
himself back then as being somewhat anti-tech
nology. “I didn’t even have e-mail,” he says.
But Petrow wanted to stay in journalism and
he wanted to stay in San Francisco. “And here, the
jobs are in the new media. So that’s where I went,”
he says.
Seattle, home of the software Goliath
Microsoft, has become another center for cyber
journalism. When Microsoft was looking for
someone to launch a high-profile group of on-line
city guides, called “Sidewalk,” it turned to Michael
D on ’ t S ay Y ou C an ’ t G et A H o m e L oan
U ntil Y ou ’ ve P honed H o m e
Goff, a founder and former editor-in-chief of Out
magazine.
“I think, across the board, journalists are
looking at new technology in order to do their best
work. I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily more
applicable to gay people,” says Goff. 'This is a
new medium. It’s like when they first invented
television. And that’s compelling.”
But even though the primary attractions for
Goff (whose professional background prior to
Out was in mainstream magazines) were the na
ture of the medium and the ability to shape an
entirely new product, he also admits Microsoft
and the on-line world offered him career potential
that the mainstream magazine world might not
have provided, despite the success he had at Out.
“I would have loved to be the editor of Es
quire," says Goff. “But 1 don’t think they would
have ever hired me.”
This new medium also has a new attitude
toward its gay employees. While lesbian and gay
journalists in more traditional companies continue
to fight the lavender ceiling in their workplaces and
lobby for domestic partnership benefits, gay and
lesbian cyber journalists usually find a more equi
table atmosphere. T ake Goff s employer, M icrosoft,
for example. Not only does it offer full benefits
coverage to domestic partners, but the company
will also pay the moving expenses for partners of
employees when it relocates them. It will even help
those partners find a job.
When Yarbrough left the Advocate, he says,
“I got a couple of other offers from some major
media companies that were pretty traditional,”
including one he describes as being among the
“stodgiest.” But he says the atmosphere of equal
ity at C/Net tipped the balance.
“In other places I’ve worked [before the Ad
vocate], I’ve sometimes felt like my voice was
considered to be a minority voice,” Yarbrough
says. His concern was that if he took one of those
traditional jobs, “I was going to have to face that
again. I knew my voice was always going to be
taken with a grain of salt. Here, that is not the
case.”
One of the challenges for openly lesbian or
gay journalists working for traditional media out
lets has always been to try to work for fair and
accurate coverage of gay people and their issues,
usually in the face of a decidedly heterocentric
workplace culture. Wickre, Goff, Petrow and
Yarbrough all agree that the cyber world, with its
culture of inclusion and equality, also presents an
opportunity for inclusive and equal coverage.
“This is the first new medium that has come of
age since the gay movement came of age,” says
Yarbrough. “This medium, as it grows, is going to
be a place where a gay voice is not a secondary
voice.”
Yarbrough. 'T his medium, as it grows, is going to
be a place where a gay voice is not a secondary
voice.”
But gay journalists working inside cyberspace
say the idea is not to turn the medium into a forum
dominated by lesbian and gay themes or to create
a propaganda tool with particular political axes to
grind.
Petrow says when Hotwired runs a story that
has a gay or lesbian angle, it has to meet the same
standards of newsworthiness as any other story.
The difference, though, is that with out gay men
and lesbians working inside, more newsworthy
stories that involve or reflect gay life will be
pitched.
In essence, the rush of gay men and lesbians
into cyberspace is creating an atmosphere where
gay-related stories are seen as just a part of the
overall news flow, not as something out of the
ordinary.
“I don’t think [gay-related content] is some
thing we will try to seek out deliberately. But 1
think having gays and lesbians in positions where
they are making decisions about content is going
to make it a matter of course to include those kind
of stories,” says Goff.
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