COMMUNITY FORUM
NOVEMBER 10, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 9
Continued from facing page
has been covered by the Chronicle.
A study of what has and has not been reported on over the last several issues reyeals a clear bias and slant toward news regarding the campaign of Madeleine Cain for mayor of Lakewood. It would appear that Ms. Cain was the sole champion and voice of the lesbian and gay residents of Lakewood. The absence of any other campaign positions regarding lesbian-gay issues voiced by the three other mayoral candidates only reinforces this distortion.
In point of fact, both Republican mayoral candidate Pam Smith and independent candidate Brian Daw have publicly supported gay rights and declared candidacies of inclusion. Had the Chronicle done its homework and gotten reporters to interview all the candidates, this might have been determined early on, and a "queer town hall meeting" might have ensued-sponsored by you!—in which we could judge these individuals for ourselves. Instead, in your continuing commitment toward providing quick, heat editorial conclusions for complex issues you relied on the old saw "Democrat equals gay friendly" and left it at that. For those of us not entirely convinced of Cain's gay-friendly walk vs. talk, you have done all our community a serious disservice.
Even more disturbing is the Chronicle's complete blackout on coverage of the only openly gay candidate in Northeast Ohio, John Farina, who is running for Lakewood City Council as a Republican. Putting aside the issue of endorsements for the moment, think of what an interesting article might have arisen from a Chronicle interview with a gay Republican candidate—what insights might have been offered to your readers, so accustomed to Republican-bashing in the name of gay rights and freedoms. This political development was simply too uncomfortable to deal with apparently, for Farina's own position paper (prepared and delivered to you well in advance of press time) was declined publication on some flimsy excuse.
While we all decry the appalling lack of our community's involvement in the local political scene, it would seem that the Chronicle has once again lost its opportunity to stimulate any greater involvement. If not in Lakewood, with our tremendous numerical impact, than where else are we going to have any hope of achieving real tangible change?
Please: wake up, set aside your simplistic political assumptions, and actually cover the entire picture!
Bill Tregoning
Lakewood
No effort was made
To the Editors:
Lakewood is home to more gays and lesbians than perhaps any other city in Ohio. It would make sense that the potentially thousands of gay and lesbian residents in Lakewood would be represented by one of their own, an openly gay or lesbian city council member or mayor. This year Lakewood's gay voters had that chance, although you would never know it from the Chronicle's
coverage.
When deciding to run for Lakewood City Council, one of the biggest decisions was whether or not to run as an openly gay candidate. I chose to do just that I chose to be the first openly gay candidate in Lakewood's history, and hopefully the first openly gay
Community Forum
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elected official in Lakewood.
It would seem natural to find this in the pages of the Chronicle, but no, I was told there was no room. Even though an article was submitted on time and was written in such a manner that it could have been edited to any size without losing its purpose. Of course, it is obvious that the Chronicle was never really interested in reporting on the campaign of an openly gay Republican, since no effort was made to even contact me during the nearly four months of the campaign.
Should I take this personally? You tell me no. While I was the only openly gay candidate in the area, there was only room to report on only one candidate and her campaign. Madeline Cain, the straight woman running for mayor, a Democrat (this being the second article about her in as many issues). I applaud Madeline Cain for her stance on gay and lesbian issues, but who better to promote them than someone who is gay! Anyway, had anyone bothered to check they might have found that Republican Pam Smith and Independent Brian Daw are also supportive of our community and its issues, Madeline Cain does not corner the market on support for our community. Three out of four mayoral candidates in Lakewood support the gay and lesbian community, one would never know that from your coverage.
You don't need to be excited by the fact that I am a Republican, I realize that is not in line with your personal views. You are our community's newspaper, you should be responsible enough to cover the news and happenings in our community in an objective and informative manner and not let your personal feelings get in the way. My campaign was deserving of at least a minimum of coverage if for no other reason than my being the only openly gay candidate in the area. The Chronicle should be more responsible in the future.
In closing, I do want to thank the dozens of gays and lesbians who did support me and my campaign. I couldn't have done it without your encouragement and financial support-from all political persuasions.
John Farina Lakewood
Yes, we should have covered John Farina's run for Lakewood council. However, our failure to cover his campaign had nothing to do with his party or positions.
Party politics also played no role in our coverage of Madeline Cain's mayoral race. Attempts were made, starting in September, to contact all of the candidates for Lakewood mayor. Neither Pamela Smith nor Brian Daw returned our phone calls or responded to letters, nor did anyone from their campaigns. Cain spoke with us on several occasions, and provided us with a clear position statement.
No effort was made by Farina or his supporters to contact us until a freelance writer faxed an article for the October 27 issue. Prior to that, we had no knowledge he was running as an openly gay candidate. If he had at least called us earlier in his campaign, it would have been covered.
-Editors
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