Last Sunday's CBS Evening News aired a two-minute profile on the youngest mayor-elect in the country, 22-year-old Alex Morse of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The piece, by anchor Russ Mitchell, showed Morse on election night at his victory party and interviewed him about issues facing Holyoke, including the city's high 11 percent unemployment rate. Mitchell pointed out that the working class city in the western part of the state is diverse, and he noted that Morse, a recent college graduate, has his eye on several projects that hopefully will boost employment and the city's nightlife.
Unfortunately, there was one thing that Mitchell left out of his story: Morse is openly gay. That fact should have been mentioned in CBS' coverage for several reasons. Above all, it's part of who Morse is as a person. His election shows other LGBTs that they, too, can run and win key leadership races. And it's another example that gays are part of mainstream American life, in a city perhaps not known for its gay activism like San Francisco or New York.
Veteran television news man Hank Plante, an openly gay man who retired last year from the CBS5 affiliate in San Francisco, was conflicted about the omission in a note that was shared with LGBT journalists. "I guess one could make the argument that that's a good thing, and that his sexuality shouldn't matter," Plante, now living in Palm Springs, wrote.
On the other hand, he said, gays and lesbians, especially young people, need heroes. "And since the mayor-elect is open about his sexuality, I think it should have been part of the story. After all, the mostly-straight voters said 'yes' to this young man, just as the mostly-white voters in America said 'yes' to our first African American president, and that's certainly significant," Plante stated.
We're firmly on the side of inclusion. Since Morse is out – and was backed by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund in his race – CBS did a disservice to its viewers with its decision to "in" the mayor-elect. Normally, we would call on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to enter the fray, and perhaps meet with CBS News officials to talk with them about the importance of this small Massachusetts city electing an out mayor. But these days GLAAD is consumed with reacting to negative situations, such as when a celebrity writes "faggot" in a tweet or uses "tranny" to refer to a transgender person. So we won't hold our breath with the pc police of GLAAD.
In fact, Morse isn't the only LGBT mayor elected in last week's balloting. The Victory Fund reported that eight of nine out candidates it endorsed won their elections. The one who lost? That would be Bevan Dufty right here in San Francisco, the so-called gay mecca. Houston continues to be governed by Annise Parker, who won her race easily. And Steve Pougnet won re-election in Palm Springs.
Plante makes another point that CBS leaders – and other mainstream news executives – would do well to keep in mind, especially on TV news shows: the more that LGBTs are portrayed as part of the fabric of everyday life, the better off we are. It is often said that we are everywhere. But we're not in news stories if reporters continue to keep us in the closet even when we're out.
Hernandez wins school board seat
Speaking of young gay politicos, here's a shout-out to David Hernandez, the gay congressional aide who helped save the life of Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) after she was shot in the head in January. Last week he won a seat on the school board in Tucson. He was one of five Victory Fund-backed school board candidates across the country who won last week. We're confident that Hernandez will add an important voice to local education in Arizona, a state that has been in the spotlight for its anti-immigration stances.