In June 1997, in response to a request from Rob Yeager, a community activist, the Minnesota News Council held a public forum on coverage of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) community.

Yeager's timing couldn't have been better. The forum preceded the annual Gay Pride Parade, which gets local media attention. And two significant national news stories were just winding down: the proposed Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) legislation and the Andrew Cunanan murders.

Most of the 30 or so community participants in the forum said they saw improvements in both quantity and quality of coverage of gays and lesbians. They cited improved coverage of Gay Pride events and congratulated the Pioneer Press for its story a few years ago about AIDS in rural Minnesota.

Ken Darling, a columnist for Q Monthly, said, "In the last five years the media has matured enough to handle gay and lesbian stories with sophistication and accuracy. Six years ago, with the Chenoweth murder [John Chenoweth, a former state senator, was found shot to death in 1991 in a park frequented by gay men], the coverage was really sensational, with screaming headlines. That wouldn't happen today.

"Where they drop the ball now is illustrated by the Cunanan case, where another level of sophistication is needed. Is homosexuality really the issue in this case? It was labeled a 'homosexual killing.' There's no evidence, but the gay angle was played up."

Jim Garrott, then assignment editor at KARE, pointed out that the story focused more on its gay aspects, and was handled worse, as developments moved further east: "I got sick of how we had to play it up more as it got further away from us (because of the extensive national coverage the story received)."

The use of footage from sado-masochistic videotapes found in Cunanan's apartment drew the most heated criticism. "When a lurid story is done about a gay person it tends to propagate an attitude in the straight world that this is how gay people are," said Darling. "It wasn't just showing 15 seconds, it showed people tied up, it showed skin, it was lurid and explicit and on the 6 p.m. news. It reinforces the idea that this is how gay people are, nothing but sex, and sex can turn violent."

"The point is," said Tim Cole of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission, "if this were male-on-female crime, and if the porn video were broadcast, no one would say, 'This is how those heteros are.'"

"It wouldn't get the amount of coverage it got if it was male-on-female crime," said Laurie McKiernan, of the Transpeople, Biwomen & Lesbians Alliance.

Not all stations in the Twin Cities broadcast footage from the videotape. George Severson, KMSP assignment editor, said his station ran it because it was relevant: a victim was tied up in a manner similar to that shown on the videotape. David Michaela, KTCA reporter, said his station decided not to run it as a matter of taste.

Whether an individual station ran excerpts of the videotape or not, said Garrott, the public perception was that all stations had, and all stations would have to live with it.

Claude Peck, former editor of the Twin Cities Reader, asked if the trend in diversifying newsrooms included gay and lesbian reporters. He suggested that a gay or lesbian reporter might have done the story differently. Alan Beck, KMSP associate news director, said sexual orientation is absolutely a criterion for diversity. "The Cunanan story was covered by a gay reporter and a gay editor," he said.

Star Tribune staffers Rosalind Bentley and Paul Walsh said the Star Tribune actively recruits gays and lesbians, but Bentley said it's not enough just to have a gay reporter in the newsroom: "People aren't comfortable being 'out' in the newsroom. You have to create a newsroom feeling that you can speak up. In a mainstream newsroom, being vocal is hard."

Darling asked if there was a copy desk protocol to get advice on gay or lesbian stories. Bentley said there was no protocol, but Walsh added, "Gay reporter or not, when covering gay stories we pull a group together to examine the impact on the community, like we did last year with blacks and crime."

"I'm more concerned with the general tenor, not with specific gay/lesbian coverage," said Darling. "Channel 9 is a good example (of enlightened coverage). The Twin Cities Reader was the best example. There was a feel in the Reader of a non-hetero perspective. It was the natural outgrowth of a bare minimum of 'out' staffers."

Discussion turned to coverage of social issues and the frequent appearance of Darrell McKigney, giving the Minnesota Family Council's opinion for "balance" in print and broadcast media.

"It's my most dreaded nightmare, to be on the couch with Darrell McKigney trying to argue about HIV," said Lorraine Teel, executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Project. She asked the media to question the credibility of the Family Council on the issue of AIDS/sex education.

Michaela defended the frequent appearance of the Family Council as a policy decision: "Conservatives have as legitimate a voice as any other lobbying group. Whether I believe what they have to say or not is not germane to whether they get to say it."

"But they're given equal weight without having the facts behind them," countered Yeager. "Our lives are not a matter of opinion; it's important to see accurate coverage."

Cole asked why no stories challenge conservatives on their facts: "There's a belief on the part of the media that they need to 'balance' a story and they assume the other point of view is the Christian conservative spokesperson."

"Balance is not good enough," said Darling. "The factual basis is not equal."

Cole challenged the media to get to the bottom of the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) story: "They use the term 'gay agenda,' but (conservatives) have an agenda, too. There are DOMA bills in every state in the union. That's no coincidence. That's a real agenda. There is nothing comparable in the gay community. The gay community just isn't that organized."

Gary Gilson, the News Council's executive director, concluded the discussion by observing that journalists must not only show both sides of an issue, but need to research the facts and point out inconsistencies.