DARIO CANTATORE/GETTY IMAGES
“The changes regarding gays at The Times are a little bit commensurate with the situation with women here,” said Anna
Quindlen, a regular columnist for the paper’s op-ed page at the time. She is now a full-time novelist, pictured here in April of 2011.
fice with your particular
life concerns. You don’t
want to draw attention
to the fact that you’re
female. But when you
don’t have to pass any
longer, you can come in
with your life stories
and say, ‘At least half of
our readers are interested in this story, and
I know about it because
it’s part of my experience.’” Quindlen has
noticed that gay people
at The Times are now
much more at ease socially. “My gay friends
now talk openly with
me, out loud in the
newsroom, about their
dates,” she says.
Philip Gefter, who is
training to become a
picture editor, says that
even longtime gay staffers are amazed at how
many gays and lesbians
there are at the paper
whom they previously
didn’t know about. “Every time I want a ‘proclivity check’ on a man I
find attractive,” he says,
“I’ll ask a gay man who’s
been here a lon