Anti-same sex marriage activist Maggie Gallagher recently restated something to the Washington Independent I’ve heard her say before: she loves the LGBT press (hat tip to JoeMyGod):
“I love the gay press,” said Gallagher. “I really am impressed with gay journalists, as a group. I like reading the marriage issue in the gay press because they cover it as if what happens matters, whereas if you read The New York Times, it’s always about how this is going to affect who gets elected president.”
You can disagree with Gallagher’s ultimate goals, but I think she’s being very sincere when she says she appreciates gay journalists and the LGBT press because we take same-sex marriage seriously as an issue. So much of the mainstream media’s coverage of the debate over same-sex marriage involves people shouting but not much real analysis. It tends to be horse-race coverage instead of trying to figure out what people think and care about when it comes to the debate.
I read a lot of the conservative press and I think many in the conservative press take the issue of same-sex marriage more seriously than you find in the progressive press, for instance, which tends to cover the issue by cartooning opponents but not really engaging the larger philosophical questions. Now there is plenty of bad coverage of the issue in the conservative press, but I do think the conservative press engages the issues more effectively than the non-LGBT liberal or progressive press.
Which underscores why LGBT journalists and the LGBT press play such an important role in the conversation. Same-sex marriage is a serious question that deserves serious discussion and engagement with opponents who deserve to be taken seriously, which is why Gallagher is a fan.