Gay workers sue Bellevue, Times goes neanderthal
The Seattle Times reports this morning that three gay emergency workers are suing the city of Bellevue for equality in domestic partner benefits. But the article’s copy editor was perhaps not the most progressive:
GAYSUIT? Did they seriously just call this a GAYSUIT?
Wait, is this a comment on the lawsuit or the snappy apparel of the fireman? I can’t decide. (By the way, can we take a moment to reflect on the hotness of gay firefighter Larry deGroen? Okay, carry on.) I can’t wait for more catchy wordslinging from this copy editor. Next up: immigrants from Mexico sue Bellevue in what the Times calls the “Mexisuit,” and Taco Bell instantly picks up the term for a new menu item.
EDIT: The caption in question has been removed. Hmm!
yes, but it’s still in the
Wow. They really bring this stuff on themselves, don’t they?
Wait, some gay people filed a lawsuit. You need a name (slug, in newspaper parlance) for the story. Is GAYSUIT such a long reach? When I heard about this I expected something far more inflammatory. I don’t even see where it’s offensive.
Plus, they changed it when it was pointed out. Is this really something to get all worked up over? Or do you just need something to get all worked up over?
Actually I think that the “slug” explanation is probably the most likely. I worked once for a journalism school designing content management systems and there was indeed a requirement for a shorthand way of referring to a story, usually by a concatenation of nouns. What happened here was that part of the slug got parsed as the dateline.
As far as journalism technology goes, it could have been worse:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/fishu/trash/skoreagold.jpg
Don’t worry Bobh, my indignant hypersensitive GLBTQASDFJKLD activist days are long over, I mostly just found it amusing (and amusingly indelicate). I’m not burning any rainbows on the Seattle Times lawn or anything.