From Jim Harper, Former NLGJA National Board Member

Jim Harper
Freelance Writer and Editor, Tampa, FL
Former NLGJA National Board Member

In 1989 I was night city editor of the St. Petersburg Times, secure in my career after more than a dozen years of reporting and column-writing. And yet, I had to wait till the newsroom was almost empty one evening before I could go to the bulletin board and retrieve the ASNE survey of gay and lesbian journalists that Roy Aarons had sent around. I didn't want just anybody to know.

After a lot of factual questions, the survey asked: "In your opinion, what's the biggest obstacle impeding fair and accurate coverage of gay and lesbian issues?" I thought about that for awhile, then realized it was gay people's reluctance to be more open in the everyday discussions of our own newsrooms. At the end, there was a space to sign your name and job title. It was optional, of course. But I didn't see how I could contradict myself.

Back then, I didn't know Roy Aarons from Adam. I figured, though, if someone had enough guts, and diplomacy, to get the American Society of Newspaper Editors to put its imprimatur on a survey of lesbian and gay journalists, then maybe, just maybe, my one small name and on-the-record comments might be joined together with others and put to good use.

Were they ever!

Several years later, Roy recruited me to join the NLGJA's board of directors. Suddenly it fell to me to organize the program for one of our national conventions. I'd never done anything like it before. Roy coached me, guided me, sent me names of potential panelists, and gently chided me when I needed it. The program came together and I was able to bask in the convention's success. Like a good editor, Roy never asked for any credit.

Some time after that, Roy and his partner Josh came to Tampa/St. Pete to visit our local NLGJA chapter and to sign copies of Roy's new book, "Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of her Gay Son." At a restaurant later, it was my job to tally the dinner tab. "Your share is 88 bucks," I said to Roy and Josh. And then I looked at Roy and called him Papa.

He didn't miss the cue. In a voice that had all the brassiness, if not quite the tunefulness, of Tyne Daly or Ethel Merman, Roy picked up the next line from Gypsy: "All I need is 88 bucks, Papa."

As Roy Aarons knew, journalism will always be richer and truer with the unabashed presence of many kinds of people, including us Broadway queens.