HUFFINGTON
12.09.12
OUT AT THE TIMES
Sexual Politics, Sexual
Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in United States
that in their articles,
“the Washington Post
and Life acknowledged
a range of opinions, including those of homophile leaders and mental health professionals
who took issue with the
sickness theory [of homosexuality].” But The
Times story, he pointed
out, “emphasized the
stance of vice squad officers and the segment
of the medical professional that categorized
homosexuals as ‘crippled psychically.’”
In 1969 author Gay
Talese, a close friend of
Rosenthal’s and a former Times reporter,
wrote in The Kingdom
and the Power, his book
about The Times, that
“it seemed to Rosenthal
that homosexuals were
more obvious on city
streets...and this led to a
superb article that was,
by old-time standards,
quite revolutionary.”
Shortly after he arrived at The Times in
1972, Jeff Schmalz, who
began working as a copyboy, remembers hearing
“much screaming and
yelling over various articles” about gays. The
modern gay rights movement had come into
being with the Stonewall riots, a series of
demonstrations in New
York City in 1969, the
same year Rosenthal
was named the paper’s
managing editor. Many
writers and editors at
The Times were eager
to cover the burgeoning
movement and report on
the gay and lesbian community. “We’d done a
piece about a gay cruise
on the cover of the travel
section,” Schmalz recalls. “There was a lot of
shouting about it. Abe
thought that it was a
total mistake and that
we never should have
done it. And we’d used
the word gay. He said
we could never use that
word again.”
“ We’d done a piece
about a gay cruise
on the cover of
the travel section.
There was a lot
of shouting about
it. Abe thought
that it was a total
mistake …”
— Jeff Schmalz