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OR LESBIAN AND gay journalists, newsrooms aren't closets with terminals anymore.
In the past two or three years, many newspapers have moved dramatically to make openly gay and lesbian employees comfortable in the workplace.
That was apparent at the recent National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention in Miami, where more than a dozen newspapers and chains were actively recruiting and the list of event sponsors read like a FAS-FAX report: Cox Newspapers, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Gannett Co., Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Knight-Ridder, and St. Petersburg Times.
This outreach to gay and lesbian journalists extended even to an ad in the NLGJA convention program for the Knight Fellowships at Stanford University. The ad included this testimonial from 1993-94 fellow Michelle Johnson: "My partner came to Stanford with me for the Knight Fellowship and enjoyed the same privileges as the other fellows' spouses. She even received (and declined) an invitation to join the Faculty Wives Club!"Johnson wrote.
One of the news organizations most active in making itself over as a gayfriendly employer is KnightRidder, the nation's second- largest publisher of daily newspapers.
Among other measures, Knight-Ridder is running "sex- ual orientation in the workplace" seminars at all its newspapers. There are no exceptions, said Larry Olmstead, the chain's assistant vice president for diversity.
"Some newspapers said to me, "This is a hot-button issue: And my reaction is, if it's a hot-button issue -- you probably need this training," Olmstead said.
There was no top management resistance at the 53,000-circulation News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind., however. The executive editor there is openly gay, Joe Weiler.
"Should the editor of the newspaper be holding formal -- actually, mandatory -- training sessions on the issues around sexual orientation?" Weiler said. "One of...