HUFFINGTON
12.09.12
OUT AT THE TIMES
Throughout the ’70s
and into the ’80s, most
gay men and lesbians
who worked at The
Times were deeply closeted. “There was some
sleeping around among
people in the newsroom,” Schmalz says,
“but we didn’t even nod
or wink at each other
while in the office.” Gay
people at The Times
say that they were immensely frightened and
frustrated under Rosenthal, who moved into
the top position of executive editor in 1977.
They couldn’t complain
because to do so they’d
have to come out. But
they felt they couldn’t
come out because it
would definitely jeopardize their jobs.
Times assistant news
editor Russell King remembers writing a firstperson piece in the early
‘80s about AIDS that
he was going to submit
to the New York Times
Magazine. “I showed it
to a friend at The Times
who said, ‘You can’t
[submit] this. Everyone
will know you’re gay,’”
King recalls. “I then
showed it to my editor.
He was a good person,
knew I was gay, and accepted it but agreed that
it would be trouble for
me if it was printed, that
it would hurt me.”
Charles Kaiser is the
author of 1968 in America and is a former staffer
at both The Times and
The Wall Street Journal.
In 1982, having worked
as a news clerk for
Rosenthal at The Times,
he was the media critic
at Newsweek. He wrote
a column criticizing
The Times and Rosenthal specifically, saying
that Rosenthal had used
the paper to reward his
friends and punish his
enemies. Rosenthal, never able to stomach criticism, flew into a frenzy.
Though years later, in
1991, he would opine that
“the outing of gays who
want to keep their sex
lives private” is a form
of “sexual harassment,”
Rosenthal revealed Kaiser’s homosexuality to
people throughout the
media industry, Kaiser
asserts. “Within days
Rosenthal was telling
everyone he knew that
I’d written this article
about him because I’m
gay,” Kaiser says. “I assume that what he meant
was that because he
had a reputation for being homophobic, I was
doing this to ret aliate
against him, which was
a complete non sequitur. I was a media critic,
and I was doing my job.”
At the time, Kaiser was
completely closeted and
hadn’t ever discussed
his homosexuality with
Rosenthal. “He outed
me,” Kaiser asserts. “I
kept hearing it from people in Washington [D.C.],
people in New York. It
was very uncomfortable.”
Rosenthal denies the
entire scenario, claiming
to only vaguely remember the attack in Newsweek. “He’s a fantasizer,”