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The Nation's News Media As Handmaidens to Gay Marriage Media Matters |
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When the Los Angeles Times spoke about issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the paper wrote, "Clearly those who claim that it signals the end of civilization need to get their outrage odometers adjusted." And when the Boston Globe's editorial writers addressed the issue, they were unequivocally positive, stating, "Same-sex marriages pose no threat to anyone but rather affirm a commitment of love, an emotion that is universal." The country's most prestigious journalistic voice even allowed what sure seemed like a pro-gay-rights stance to color its news coverage. When the New York Times published a profile of the man who ordered the licenses to be issued, the specific words the paper chose to describe the San Francisco mayor clearly communicated that the paper thinks Gavin Newsom is a man worthy of admiration. The Times reported that the 36-year-old Irish Catholic's motives are "pure and principled" and that he has such large quantities of "business acumen, money, good looks and friends in the right places" that many members of the Democratic Party see him "as a rising star." Without question, each and every one of these positive statements-whether on the editorial page or in the news columns-contributes to the momentum for gay marriage. But, for my money, at least equally beneficial has been the stream of photos coming from the West Coast.
Other couples who've followed in Martin and Lyon's matrimonial footsteps have done their part to break the stereotypical image of lesbians. Associated Press photos of Cissie Bonini and Lora Pertle showed two beautiful young women wearing elegant white wedding gowns and matching veils. Anyone who still believed that all lesbians weigh a minimum of 250 pounds and wear flannel shirts and work boots-and, yes, many people do-had to take a second look when Bonini and Pertle appeared on the front page of the morning newspaper. Indeed, the two women could easily be finalists in the Miss California pageant. Nor is it just lesbian couples who are shattering the stereotypes. My guess is that plenty of people in this country still think of gay men as pathetic creatures who are doomed to sad and lonely lives-think Boys in the Band. Anyone harboring that perception has gotten a jolt of reality thanks to couples such as Rich Walker and Brad Chilcoat, another of the newly minted married couples that the Associated Press captured on film. Walker and Chilcoat are no Brad Pitt and Will Smith in the looks department, but the mile-wide smiles the biracial couple sported as they left San Francisco City Hall left no doubt about the elation they felt on their big day. Another of my favorites among the flood of joyful couples was one whose photo appeared on the front page of USA Today the morning after President Bush called for a constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriages. The nation's largest-circulation newspaper squeezed the sour-faced Bush into a headshot in the far right column. But the image that dominated the page-three columns wide by six inches deep-was of Aaron Carruthers and Keith Haberstuck. Anything but sour-faced, the two young men smiled broadly as they prepared to take their wedding vows, Carruthers sniffing a bouquet of bright yellow daffodils. I could almost smell the sweet fragrance myself. 
Rodger Streitmatter, Ph.D. is a member of the School of Communication faculty at American University in Washington, D.C. His latest book, Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America has recently been published by Columbia University Press. He is also the author of Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay & Lesbian Press in America (Faber & Faber, 1995) and Raising Her Voice: African American Women Journalists Who Changed History (The University Press of Kentucky, 1994)
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The Today show has given positive coverage to the gay marriage debate 
Del Martin (left) and Phyllis Lyon (right), here with GayToday Editor Jack Nichols, were the first gay couple married in San Francisco