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?
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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