Last week, when Washington DC started issuing marriage licenses, the Washington Post printed the picture at the right, of Jeremy Ames and Taka Ariga, happily kissing as they went for their license, on the front page. For non-sadsack wingnuts, it was no big deal, but of course, the knuckledraggers of our society always show themselves at times like these. Here’s a bit of what WaPo ombudsman Andy Anderson had to deal with:
A few of the readers have engaged in rants, often with anti-gay slurs. One called me to complain about “promoting a faggot lifestyle.” Another complained about the photo in an e-mail to the two Post reporters who wrote Thursday’ story about the licenses: “That kind of stuff makes normal people want to throw up. People have kids who are being exposed to this crap. I will be glad when your rag goes out of business. Real men marry women.”
(…)
Wrote Lee Miller of Columbia: “I would appreciate it if your cover pictures would not be so disturbing where my kids can see it easily on the kitchen table… please don’t shove this “Gay” business in our face. This is something that should have shown up on an inside page or two (without the picture).”
In comments to the ombudsman’ call-in line (202.334.7582), one reader said, “the picture of two guys kissing makes me cringe.” Another called it “ridiculous,” adding: “Put it on page 10 or page four, put it in the paper, but I do not like it right there where I can’t avoid looking at it.”
Many threatened to cancel their Post subscriptions, and more than two dozen did.
Ah don’ lahke seein’ dem faggot men kissy-kissy in mah mornin’ paper, ah’llbedamned!
So, quite rightly, the ombudsman ended his piece by insulting those readers’ for their ignorance and irrational fear:
News photos capture reality. And the prominent display reflects the historic significance of what was occurring. The recent D.C. Council decision to approve same-sex marriage was the culmination of a decades-long gay rights fight for equality. Same-sex marriage is now legal in the District. The photo of Ames and Ariga kissing simply showed joy that would be exhibited by any couple planning to wed — especially a couple who previously had been denied the legal right to marry.
There was a time, after court-ordered integration, when readers complained about front-page photos of blacks mixing with whites. Today, photo images of same-sex couples capture the same reality of societal change.
Ombudsman burn!
Jim Newell at Wonkette picks out the one error in Anderson’s argument, though:
Ha ha, who says these same complainers ever accepted the black/white photographs? ASK “EM ABOUT THOSE, IN 2010.
Touch?©, Jim. You probably should also click that clicky to read Jim’s summary of this same article. I would quote it, but I don’t think I can do that at a dot org, you know?
(Photo credit: Bill O’Leary, The Washington Post)
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Newspapers are there to report the news. If you can’t handle the real world (which includes gay people) then stick to Nick at Nite.
Comment by Buffy — March 9, 2010 @ 6:35 pm
This is insulting. Newspapers are constantly showing horrific images on the front page: war, floods, starvation, and hate. All of that is fine and dandy. But gay men are too much? Two men kissing are worse than a dead soldier? I’m all for disagreement but these complainers aren’t disagreeing, they want to make it so that gay people DO NOT EXIST. I’m not even gay, I’m asexual, but even I am insulted. Advocating for the non-existence of lesbian and gay people, whether thru silence or murder, is evil.
Comment by Ephilei — March 9, 2010 @ 9:51 pm
My first thought exactly Ephilei. I’m sure that mother has no problem with her sensitive little children playing violent beyond belief video games or watching a panoply of gore and mayhem on nightly television, but 2 men kissing on the front page of a newspaper might turn them into Rue Paul or Ted Bundy. I wonder if in her cultural wasteland she ever saw 2 French men kissing each other on the cheeks or Arab men holding hands like her hero George Bush and King Whatshisname of Saudi Arabia?
Comment by Gary (NJ) — March 10, 2010 @ 10:08 am
Haha, of course not, Gary. These people don’t leave their suburbs very often, much less the country.
Comment by Evan Hurst — March 10, 2010 @ 10:21 am
You are absolutely correct Ephilei! When society complains about 2 men kissing on the front page of a newspaper, but does not complain about horribly injured people on the front page of a newspaper, I am forced to question how “normal” society really is.
Comment by James — March 10, 2010 @ 10:25 am
There is such a thing as not buying the newspaper or magazine if they don’t like it. But I have to agree with other posters that there is something wrong with people not batting an eye at horrific violence in print media or TV but who seem tto be on the verge of a nervous breakdown if they see a same-sex couple kissing. That’s what I call badly-skewed priorities.
Comment by Merlyn — March 10, 2010 @ 3:51 pm
[...] Washington Post Ombudsman Sticks It to Homophobes Complaining About Same-Sex Kissing (6) [...]
Pingback by In Mississippi, a High School That Hates Gay People So Much That They Cancel the Prom « Hindgrindr — March 11, 2010 @ 4:38 pm
I have to agree with Epheli on this one. Children, on average, watch at least 9 hours of television a day and witness about 100 or more acts of violence and sex on TV. Yet, two men kissing on the front page is a total upheaval of their normalcy? For crying out loud people…YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE!
Comment by Ray Sager — March 21, 2010 @ 12:23 pm
“Children, on average, watch at least 9 hours of television a day”.
I don’t think so.
Comment by Priya Lynn — March 21, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
Wow, I never had time to watch that much TV as a kid (in the 90’s). I think the most that I would ever watch was 4 hours, though I had no interest in the graphically violent or sexual. A lot of what I watched was PBS or old cartoons. I also went through a Cooking Show phase in Middle School.
Comment by Emily K — March 21, 2010 @ 10:05 pm