You may remember that when John Solomon took over as executive editor of the Washington Times, he eliminated the anachronistic use of “homosexual” instead of “gay,” and also said no more scare quotes around the term “homosexual marriage.”
Well Solomon left the financially-plagued paper in November right before the paper eliminated 40 percent of its reporting staff. People who follow the conservative newspaper have been wondering whether the paper would return to its old ways when it came to “homosexual” versus “gay” and the jury is still out. It’s clear that “homosexual” is now the preferred term on the editorial pages and columns, although I’m not sure whether Solomon’s style rules ever extended to the editorial pages.
Yesterday’s coverage of the Supreme Court case involving a Christian legal group and a public university in California by WT religion writer Julia Duin does make me wonder whether “homosexual” is making a come-back on the copy desk and newsroom.
The clash of religious freedom versus gay rights on college campuses came before the Supreme Court on Monday as lawyers for a Christian student group argued the group should not be forced to accept atheists or homosexuals into its leadership ranks.
No matter how justices rule in Christian Legal Society vs. Martinez, the case will affect religious groups across the country that have set up shop on secular college campuses.
Monday’s debate concentrated on whether the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco could refuse to recognize a campus chapter of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) because the latter bars non-Christians and sexually active homosexuals from becoming voting members or leaders.
Does the use of “homosexual” comply with the AP stylebook’s requirement that it be used “in clinical contexts or references to sexual activity.” How about to NLGJA’s stylebook, which suggests “[u]se only if “heterosexual” would be used in parallel constructions, such as in medical contexts?”