Remember the Madison Daily Leader's policy of shunning gay partners in obituaries? MDL says they don't include "special friends" in obits.
But they do include plain old friends. An obituary this week mentions "cousins, other relatives and many friends."
Now that's pretty thin mention: no names, just a catch-all phrase. But maybe the Leader is coming around. If maybe 5% of the population is gay, and if the deceased had "many" friends, then there's a fair chance (20 friends = 64% probability) that at least one of those friends was gay.
Really: if we can mention a general group of grade-school playmates in an obituary, we can mention a committed and loving adult partner of 21 years, can't we?
Some folks don’t understand the concept of ‘Public Service’
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Have I done it? Sure, in some volunteer roles, but never paid, and probably
never would, because what ‘public service’ means to me is serving the
public as...
3 days ago






This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.


Obviously a partner should be recognized, but Madison isn’t an open sort of place. There certainly isn’t a gay community here. A lot of people may take private comfort with that, but a stifling atmosphere also turns off all sorts of people who would foster growth for the community, so they go elsewhere.
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