First Person

Echo's managing editor found that not everyone is anxious to go on the record in 2011.

By Glenn Gullickson

The Year of "No Comment"

Silence marked 2011 when some newsmakers decided to clam up

We'd like to think that every edition of Echo Magazine includes all the news that's important and interesting to the local LGBT community, but we have to admit sometimes we don't get every story we want. And that's usually because people we want to talk to don't want to talk to us.

Here's the inside story about a few stories that got away during 2011.

The reluctant hero

We got an indication that it could be a challenging year to be an LGBT journalist early in 2011 when we learned that Daniel Hernandez, the hero of that awful January day in Tucson, was a member of the community. We scrambled to try to get an interview after the shootings, with our Tucson correspondents contacting friends of friends to try to get someone who knew Hernandez to encourage him to talk with us, to no avail.

I've found that Facebook is the new phone book, so I tried contacting Hernandez through social media, and he responded instructing me to work through a friend who had become his "scheduler." It seemed that Hernandez interviews were appearing everywhere, except in the biggest LGBT publication in Hernandez's home state. The scheduler explained that Hernandez was too busy to talk us ... something about meeting the president.

Months later, Hernandez made himself available for an interview about participating in the San Diego Pride parade. And when he was named to Echo Magazine's Hall of Fame in October, he agreed to talk again.

The big coming out

We never have been able to get another of 2011's biggest newsmakers to talk with us one-on-one. Not being much of a sports fan, I'd never heard of Rick Welts before I saw a news report on his coming out last May, but I knew if a Phoenix Suns executive was going public with his sexual orientation, we needed to have the story.

Welts obviously knew what a big story his announcement would be and he was going to go big with it, giving it to the New York Times. In the days after that newspaper's front page story, it seemed that the Welts' media blitz was everywhere — as long as the outlet had a big reach. It took a while for him to filter down to the local media. And since Welts told the Times that he was turned off by the "gay stereotype," it wasn't surprising that it look even longer for him to talk to the LGBT press.

Echo's request for an interview through the Suns was met with the reply that we were one of dozens wanting to talk to him.

I did manage to write a story about Welts, based on his appearance in front of a local LGBT audience before a Phoenix Mercury game. After he finished his Q and A with those attending, I rushed the stage, pushing my business card into his hand, requesting that he give me a call anytime. He quickly turned to the next person seeking his attention and it's doubtful that my card made the move with him recently to California.

The "big names"

Sometimes we have to do a little negotiating to get the story. That happened when we requested an interview with Joe Solmonese, national president of the Human Rights Association (HRC). I wanted to speak with him in advance of his appearance at the local HRC dinner. But HRC headquarters told us the only way would be through an email interview.

I don't like email as an interview technique. The replies are usually wooden, there's too much chance that the interview subject can avoid a question and there's no chance of asking a follow-up. In a big organization, you can't even be sure who is answering the email. So I told HRC that we'd take a pass. But they must have wanted the story, even if it risked fielding questions about the organization's support of a boycott of Arizona, since they quickly found time when Solmonese would have a few minutes to talk.

We like to talk to the "big names" before they hit town, but sometimes it seems like forces conspire against it. That's what happened when I overlooked an interview opportunity in a stack of emails for Jennifer Holliday, who was coming to sing at the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS annual dinner. By the time I made the request, the publicist couldn't get Holliday to commit to a time, so we had to go without the story.

The local antics

Celebrities who won't talk are bad enough, but the problem hits close to home when local LGBT leaders refuse to answer questions.

We don't routinely cover board meetings of organizations, but early in the year it became obvious that the 1 Voice Community Center deserved special attention when it ran into trouble with its grant funding. I started attending the board meetings and after a few minutes of standard business I would be asked to leave so the board could meet in private. On one occasion I was instructed to shut the door on my way out, and I couldn't help but retort that the request was something that should never be expected of a journalist.

During the crisis, the 1 Voice leaders — most who have since left the organization — played games, agreeing to interviews, then canceling them or hiding behind uninformative written statements.

It was unfortunate that people who had been placed in positions of authority, who asked for support from the community, didn't consider it to be part of their responsibility to inform the community by answering questions from an objective news outlet. In a particularly telling exchange, one leader of another board involved in the 1 Voice controversy told me she would rather quit her position than reveal what she knew about the issues.

She is among the people who don't understand that in today's world information is an element, like water and air, that's difficult to control. We may not know everything, but eventually the story usually comes out.

The new 1 Voice leadership has made an attempt to be more transparent, but as the year ends its agenda once again regularly includes an executive session.

Aiming high

Such antics come with the territory for veteran journalists — we know that requests to people like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry or Jane Lynch are likely to be ignored. But our freelance correspondents, who write as a sideline, can become frustrated when they have to deal with the rejection.

Kurt Niece, our TV writer, is known for aiming high with his interview requests. He even approached Chelsea Handler with a gift at a book signing to request a sit down. It wasn't the first time she's turned us down. Niece's request to talk to Chaz Bono also went nowhere.

But fortunately, there are enough people who will talk to us to fill the magazine's pages, including local leaders who understand that the community will be stronger by sharing information — the victories and foibles — and celebrities who know about the power of addressing a niche market.

We'll keep working on getting people to talk. And as long as they do, we'll keep writing. -E