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| Media Watchdog Group's Roundup of U.S. Press Reactions |
| By Don Romesburg
GLAAD Publications Manager
That, combined with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's recent comments equating homosexuality with kleptomania and conservative efforts to block gay philanthropist James Hormel's confirmation as ambassador to Luxembourg, enticed political analysts to examine the GOP "trend." Even some journalists who usually speak with conservative voices lambasted the tactic as divisive and ill-advised. Here are some examples: The New York Times ran a June 30 front-page analysis of the flurry of anti-gay comments by conservative leaders and noting that those remarks have left other Republicans trying to distance themselves from a feared backlash. One June 24, conservative columnist Arianna Huffington wrote of Lott, "Our nation's Senate Majority Leader went on Armstrong Williams' show and compared homosexuality to alcoholism, sex addiction and kleptomania. I think a more apt metaphor is Trent Lott's Senate leadership record and chronic fatigue syndrome."
Columnist Rob Morse wrote in his June 28 San Francisco Examiner piece, "Yes, politicians lectured the American people on sexuality and sin while killing major tobacco legislation and who knows how many teenagers." The lead editorial in the June 27 edition of New York's Daily News, which was entitled "Some Straight Talk About the GOP", read: "[O]ne doesn't have to be a Republican to be embarrassed, for this is more than a GOP frat-boy fight. The demonization of gays is un-American."
Contact: Bill Keller, Managing Editor, New York Times, 229 West 43rd St., NY, NY 10036-3959, fax: 212.556.3690, e-mail: letters@nytimes.com (include phone number when sending e-mails) Arianna Huffington, c/o Creators Syndicate, 577 West Century Blvd. #700, LA, CA 90045-5677 Michael Parks, Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, LA, CA 90053, fax: 213.237.7679, e-mail: letters@latimes.com Christopher Hull, Managing Editor, United Feature Syndicate, 200 Madison Ave., 4th Floor, NY, NY 10016-3903 Sharon Rosenhause, Managing Editor, and Rob Morse, Columnist, San Francisco Examiner, PO Box 7260, San Francisco, CA 94120-7260 Michael Goodwin, Editorial Page Editor, Daily News, 450 West 33rd St., NY, NY 10001-2681, fax: 212.643.7832, e-mail: letters@dailynews.com |
One of last week's hot-button political stories centered on efforts by a number of GOP conservatives to rescind President Clinton's executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in federal jobs.
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