Many Closet Doors Still
Remained Shut

The Trib’s first Gay Pride special in 2005.

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

They’ve come a long way baby, but there is still quite a distance to go until that multi-colored rainbow reaches that pot of golden inclusiveness.

As we join the city’s most diverse and accepting borough in celebrating gay pride and the fact that the region’s epicenter of acceptance, Jackson Heights, and its Pride Parade, is here in our borough, we reflect on the hard role traveled by the gay activists who have brought the movement to this point.

As we recognize the agenda of Gay Pride and applaud the effort of the countless leaders who have helped the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities to open the closet doors, it is clear to us that there is still a very long, long way to go.

A number of the businesses in our community opted out of this issue of the newspaper, afraid that some of their customers might be turned off by their support of a gay cause. This is the second time in three years that we have dedicated one of our special glossy bound magazine editions of the Trib to the Gay community, and this, like the previous one, received the least enthusiastic advertising commitment in the entire year.

The subject of homosexuality still provokes snickers and giggles -- even in our offices. Yes, even by us.

The reluctance of the hetero-sexual community to embrace those who have a different sexual preference is evident in every community and with every age group.

At the same time as reporting on the Gay Pride Agenda in Queens, our group of community newspapers on Huntington, Long Island is dedicating it’s special color second section to the Long Island Gay Parade held in Huntington Village – the most progressive and accepting community on the Island. There like here, we discovered the same resistance from our usually very accepting advertising community.

Perhaps our sales staff approached the topic with timidity; perhaps we are trying to force feed a resistant readership; or perhaps homophobia and impact of religious intolerance continues to plague otherwise progressive communities.

In one of the eight school districts we cover in Huntington, the Superintendent tried to hide her active gay population from public view. When we tried to reach the Gay Straight Alliance who in past years marched in the Pride Parade, this educational leader blocked our efforts. She made it clear through a spokesperson she didn’t want her school mentioned in a Gay Pride issue of this paper. While our paper has always had access to every student organization, team or club we’ve tried to contact, when we wanted to cover the activities of the Gay Straight Alliance, she shut the closet door.

Without judging others on their sexual preference, isn’t it time that educators recognize that teaching gays to remain in the closet is educationally unsound, emotionally damaging and violative of their human dignity.

We would much prefer to sit here and applaud the progress made by the gay movement than point to the homophobia that surrounds them. However, like every other minority struggling for its rights, dignity and equal access, it struggles in a society which is not the most understanding and accepting.

Our job, however, is to report the news and call it like we see it.

And sadly there is still a long way to go to find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com