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Thank you.
Elliott Parker
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SODOMY IN THE LONE STAR STATE:
TEXAS MEDIA COVERAGE OF GAY RIGHTS
PRE- AND POST-LAWRENCE V. TEXAS

By R. Christopher Burnett
Assistant Professor of Journalism
California State University at Long Beach
March 31, 2004

And Carlos Godoy, Esq.
Ph.D. candidate, Annenberg School of Journalism, University of Southern
California

In Collaboration with the Program for the Study of Sexual Orientation
Issues in the News at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism

Introduction

The gay rights debate in the United States has not been quite the same
since the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 6-3 margin, last June outlawed state
sodomy laws.  In fact, the ruling helped unleash a virtual civil rights
revolution as the discussion in the nation's press quickly turned to rights
of same-sex couples to legally marry.   A separate Massachusetts Supreme
Court ruling authorizing gay marriage helped fuel the debate even further,
and the issue of gay marriage became one of the hot topics of debate in the
2004 presidential campaign.
The seeds of this discussion actually began, however, in an unlikely place
-- Texas, part of the Bible belt and home state of Republican President
George Bush, an opponent of gay marriage rights. The state had long had on
its books a homosexual conduct law that made it a crime to engage in
same-sex intercourse.  Rarely enforced, the statute was a relic of the days
when most states outlawed sodomy.  Then, on September 17, 1998, a low
profile arrest occurred in Houston.  Harris County sheriff's deputies,
responding to a false report of an armed intrusion in an apartment,
discovered John Lawrence and Tyron Gardner engaging in sex in Lawrence's
apartment.   Deputies charged the men with "homosexual conduct" and took
the men to jail, where they were held for several hours before being
released on $200 bail.  The arrest got little publicity at the time, and
after the two men paid their fines, they initially faded out of public view
(Houston Chronicle, November 6, 1998, p. A-1).
In November 1998, however, the two men decided to appeal their case.  They
argued that Texas was violating the constitutional rights of gays by
"prosecuting them for engaging in behaviors that are not illegal under
Texas law if practiced by heterosexual couples" (Christian Science Monitor,
March 24, 2003).
At the time Texas was one of four states -- the others being Kansas,
Missouri, and Oklahoma -- that barred homosexual sodomy.  (Nine other
states --Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Utah and Virginia-- banned consensual sodomy for
everyone.).  The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where in
March 2003 justices heard oral arguments in Lawrence v. Texas.  At the time
the case drew a lot of attention because it was widely believed that
justices would overrule a decision made seventeen years earlier, in
Hardwick v. Bowers.  In that Georgia case, the Supreme Court had ruled 5-4
in 1986 that consenting adults have no constitutional right to private gay sex.
The debate over the issue of gay rights as reflected in the Texas state
sodomy law provides an excellent opportunity to examine the framing of news
coverage on gay rights issues at the local level before and after the
ruling.  First, in the weeks and months leading up to the justice's
decision to hear the case, how were attitudes toward homosexuality
reflected in news coverage in Texas, generally regarded as a socially
conservative Southern state?  Second, how did these attitudes change as
reflected in the coverage in the Texas newspapers in the months after the
ruling in June of 2003?
In this paper, this research question is tested using content
analysis.  Has greater societal tolerance towards homosexuality been
reflected in coverage by Texas print media?  Have stories on the issue
treated the incident as a serious breach of morality, or as an unnecessary
intrusion into the two men's private lives?  In other words, did the media
see the police as going too far for breaking into the apartment of one of
the men on a false report of an armed intruder, and arresting them after
discovering them having sex?
This research monograph will review print stories in the media in
Texas.  Print stories reviewed are from four daily papers with morning
editions on weekdays, and Saturday and Sunday editions.  They include the
Houston Chronicle (Sunday circulation, 744,935 on September 30, 2002),
Abilene Reporter-News (Sunday circulation, 34,007 on September 30, 2002),
Amarillo Globe-News (Sunday circulation 64,106 on September 30, 2002), and
the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (Sunday circulation 62,569 on September 30,
2002).  The coverage in the Chronicle, owned by the Hearst Corporation, is
anticipated to reflect more liberal societal attitudes toward
homosexuality, as well as more intense coverage of the issue since Houston
is where the arrest of the two men occurred.  Houston also has a relatively
high gay population.  Coverage in the Abilene, Amarillo and Lubbock
newspapers was examined to see if more conservative attitudes toward
homosexuality were reflected in news coverage in more rural areas of the state.
Stories are examined over two time periods.  First, stories were examined
over the period between the date of the two men's arrest, September 17,
1998, and March 26, 2003, the date of the oral arguments in the Supreme
Court.  Second, stories are examined between the time of the ruling on June
26, 2003 and February 22, 2004.  The source of the stories was the Internet
archive of the four newspapers.  Keywords used were "gay" and
"sodomy."  Articles were coded in April 2003 for the pre-Lawrence period
and in March 2004 for the post-Lawrence period.  Content was assessed using
the following question and rating schema. The headline and article was
examined, with the question asked, "Overall, how are gays and tolerance
toward sodomy portrayed:"

A.  In the Headline?
B.  In the Article?
1.  Very Negatively
1.  Very Negatively
2.  Somewhat Negatively
2.  Somewhat Negatively
3.  Balanced/Neutrally
3.  Balanced/Neutrally
4.  Somewhat Positively
4.  Somewhat Positively
5.  Very Positively
5.  Very Positively
6.  Not Portrayed
6.  Not Portrayed

Stories where most of the space in the article was used to either oppose or
support the issues involved in the sodomy case were rated a 1 (Strongly
Anti-Gay) or a 5 (Strongly Pro-Gay).  Somewhat more neutral language rated
a 2 or 4, with 2 meaning homosexuality and sodomy was treated somewhat
negatively, and 4 meaning homosexuality and sodomy was treated somewhat
positively.  Likewise, balanced, neutral coverage drew a rating of 3.    A
code of 6 means no position was evident either in the headline or
article.  Letters to the editor also were examined, though the results of
this analysis are not included in the tables that follow.  Letters are
discussed in the narrative, however. Newspapers that published letters in
general showed an interest in balancing reader views pro and against gay
rights.
Findings During the Pre-Lawrence Period
        Little bias against gays was evident in the media during this
period.  Coverage of the arrest in 1998 and subsequent court proceedings
demonstrated tolerance toward homosexuality in the media and in some cases
advocacy for dropping the sodomy statute.  Overall, the metropolitan
Houston Chronicle covered the issue much more intensely, and exhibited a
more liberal tone on its editorial page.  Even the smaller-town dailies
that were examined, however, showed a lot of tolerance.  Most of the
stories in small dailies were wire-service stories exhibiting a more
balanced approach.  These papers ran far fewer stories.
        Statistically, the following tables indicate how stories were coded.  A
qualitative examination follows in the discussion section.


Houston Chronicle (45 stories)

Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 2 stories
Strongly Anti-Gay – 2 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 3 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 5 stories
Neutral – 6 stories
Neutral – 12 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 5 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 7 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 16 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 19 stories
No Position – 8 stories
No Position – 0 stories





Abilene Reporter-News (7 stories)

Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 1 story
Strongly Anti-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Anti-Gay– 0 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 0 stories
Neutral – 2 stories
Neutral – 1 story
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Pro-Gay– 2 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay– 2 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 3 stories
No Position– 1 story
No Position – 0 stories


Amarillo Globe-News (8 stories)

Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 1 story
Strongly Anti-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 0 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 0 stories
Neutral – 3 stories
Neutral – 3 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 1 story
Strongly Pro-Gay – 2 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 3 stories
No Position – 1 story
No Position – 0 stories












Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (11 stories)

Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 3 stories
Strongly Anti-Gay – 3 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 0 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 0 stories
Neutral – 2 stories
Neutral – 2 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 2 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 4 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 4 stories
No Position – 1 story
No Position – 0 stories

        As expected, the Chronicle was the most tolerant newspaper toward
homosexuality and sodomy.  Nineteen of the 45 articles (42.2 percent of the
articles) approached homosexuality and sodomy very positively.  None of the
papers examined, however, had much anti-gay coverage on the period
surveyed.   The Morris Communications Group, headquartered in Augusta,
Georgia, owns the Amarillo and Lubbock newspapers, while Abilene is owned
by the E.W. Scripps Company.  This corporate ownership may have muted less
liberal attitudes toward homosexuality in these areas of central and
western Texas.

        Coverage During the Post-Lawrence Period
        In the post- Lawrence decision period, the tone and frequency of coverage
became more frequent in all four newspapers, except for Abilene.  Coverage
in the Houston Chronicle became much more balanced, with less of a pro-gay
tilt.  This was the case because after the initial stories praising the
sodomy ruling, stories began instead to focus on the more contentious
debate over gay marriage and expanding gay rights beyond recognizing the
sanctity of an individual's home and bedroom.  The Houston newspaper,
however, continued to demonstrate sympathy for gay rights on its editorial
page.  Staff writer Cragg Hines, in an article in the Outlook section on
August 3, 2003 criticized President Bush's willingness to "much about with
the Constitution to enforce his religious belief" (Houston Chronicle,
August 3, 2003,  p. 2).   Hines added: "As soon as Bush let loose with
"sinners" in his Sermon in the Rose Garden last week, you knew you could
safely discount any of the supposedly compassionate blather as he tried to
fuzz up his answer to the question of whether homosexuality is
immoral.  Bush clearly thinks the answer is "yes," but he doesn't have the
guts to spell it right out."   The newspaper published eight letters to the
editor during this period, five opposing gay rights and three in support.
        The Amarillo Globe-News also showed a lot of interest in gay rights issues
during the post-Lawrence period, publishing eighteen stories and four
letters to the editor, all from people supporting gay rights.  On February
21, 2004, the Globe-News published a guest column from Amarillo resident
Travis McBride,  stating he believes it is wrong to blame gays for AIDS and
"throwing them out of our churches and denying them equality in other areas
of our society"  (Amarillo Globe-News, February 21, 2004).   Amarillo
physician Carol Kiesling also wrote a column, appearing February 11, 2004,
calling the repeal of the sodomy law, the decision in Massachusetts to
allow gay marriage following the Canadian legalization, and the appointment
of the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church "huge milestones"
(Amarillo Globe-News, February 11, 2004).
It is OK that we don not all think alike, but it is not OK to isolate,
disempower and deny justice to those who think differently from the
perceived majority, some of whom take Biblical verses out of context in
order to judge and exclude others.  If we are going to wield single rules
from the Bible to clobber someone, then you need to follow them
all.  Levitical laws not only prohibit homosexuality, but also
shellfish.  The Apostle Paul tells women to cover their heads, be silent
and wear no jewelry or makeup.  Please don't try to tell me that this is
relevant in America today or it is what God intended…Actually, the Bible
contains no admonitions against loving, committed same-sex relationships.

The Globe-News, however, is far from being one sided in its coverage of the
issue.
The paper includes story from Deborah Caldwell of Beliefnet, a faith-based
news service, that summarized efforts to get President Bush to back the
constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual
institution.  The article included quotes from Richard Land, a Beliefnet
columnist who is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
of the Southern Baptist Convention, former presidential candidate Gary
Bauer, a conservative Christian, and conservative activist Charles Colson
(Amarillo Globe-News, February 7, 2004).  The newspaper also is hardly
liberal in the one editorial it published on gay rights during the
period.  An editorial published February 6, 2004 criticizes the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's advisory opinion on gay marriage as
having "opened a can of worms" without offering any constitutional evidence
supporting gay marriage.  Instead, the newspaper calls the ruling a
decision by four members of the court (it was a 4-3 ruling) to take it upon
themselves to define what marriage means.  "What four state justices have
accomplished is mandating a broad interpretation of what the Constitution
permits, and in this case, there isn't anything to support their
interpretation on constitutional grounds"  (Amarillo Globe-News, February
6, 2004).
        The fact the Globe-News has a strong interest in the issue of gay rights
might be explained by the fact at least one staff member was willing to
write a column strongly supporting gay rights.  Globe-News staff member
William H. Seewald wrote that "homosexual love is as old as
humanity"  (Amarillo Globe-News, January 23, 2004).
Those of us who are daily reminded in ways both large and small that we're
regarded as sick, deviant or immoral simply because of whom we love may
find little Christian charity for those who make a vocation of nourishing
human fear and prejudice.  Yet there's no doubt forgiveness exists for
those whose prejudices overwhelm their reason.  Our congressional retention
rate, always above 95 percent, bears testimony to that."

In contrast, the other two West Texas dailies, the Lubbock
Avalanche-Journal and the

Abilene Reporter-News showed much less interest on its editorial
pages.  Neither paper took an editorial stand on its opinion page, and
while the Abilene paper published thirteen letters to the editor (ten of
them with readers expressing pro-gay sentiments) Lubbock published
none.  Both papers demonstrated balanced, though relatively scant, coverage
of gay rights issues in the eight months following the Lawrence decision.
        A breakdown of stories in the post-Lawrence period follows.

Houston Chronicle (37 stories)
Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 4 stories
Strongly Anti-Gay – 4 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 1 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 4 stories
Neutral – 19 stories
Neutral – 10 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 2 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 4 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 9 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 15 stories
No Position – 2 stories
No Position – 0 stories












Abilene Reporter-News (4 stories)

Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 1 story
Strongly Anti-Gay – 2 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay– 0 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 0 stories
Neutral – 2 stories
Neutral – 1 story
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 0 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay -- 0 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay– 0 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 1 story
No Position– 1  story
No Position – 0 stories






Amarillo Globe-News (18 stories)

Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 4 stories
Strongly Anti-Gay – 2 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 1 story
Neutral – 6 stories
Neutral – 7 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 2 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 5 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 6 stories
No Position – 1 story
No Position – 0 stories












Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (11 stories)

Examination of Headlines
Examination of Articles
Strongly Anti-Gay – 2 stories
Strongly Anti-Gay – 2 stories
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 1 story
Somewhat Anti-Gay – 0 stories
Neutral – 4 stories
Neutral – 4 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 0 stories
Somewhat Pro-Gay – 1 story
Strongly Pro-Gay – 4 stories
Strongly Pro-Gay – 4 stories
No Position – 0 stories
No Position – 0 stories


        Discussion
        While all of the Texas newspapers have covered the sodomy case in a fairly
balanced fashion, a clear distinction existed between the Chronicle and the
more rural newspapers.  That distinction exists not so much in tone but in
sheer number of articles devoted to the issue.
The Chronicle also has run a number of editorials opposing the Texas
anti-sodomy statute.  Typical of these editorials is one that ran on
December 10, 2002, that called the Texas law "archaic and
discriminatory"  (Houston Chronicle, Dec. 10, 2002, p. A-26).  The
editorial continues:
The Texas Legislature has missed a number of opportunities to head off the
Supreme Court by striking the state's archaic and discriminatory sodomy law
from the books.  It's not likely that lawmakers will be ready this session
to recognize the injustice of regulating conduct in the bedroom…People,
including Supreme Court justices, make mistakes.  The justices should
correct the court's previous ruling (1986 Hardwick case) by striking down
odious sodomy laws in Texas and 12 other states.

The Chronicle also demonstrated pro-gay bias in a number of its
headlines.  A story on the June 2000 state Republican convention, which
featured criticism of two Republican appeals court judges who had ruled
against the Texas law, began with the headline, ABizarre Double Standard
Permeates GOP Convention.@  Chronicle reporter Julie Mason reported that
conservative Republicans often criticize activist judges who they say have
a liberal agenda..  But these same conservatives also criticize judges who
pass up the opportunity to promote a conservative agenda.  AAfter two
Republican judges on the Houston-based 14th Court of Appeals ruled the law
banning homosexual sex violates the Equal Rights Amendment of the state
Constitution, Republicans singled them out for reprimand in the state party
platform@ (Houston Chronicle, June 25, 2000, p. A-32).
Another story headlined ALocal Politicians Provided Us Plenty of
Entertainment in 2000" noted that Gary Pollard, the chairman of the Harris
County (Houston area) Republican Party, endured Amoments of infamy@ in 2000
in attempting to mastermind an unsuccessful plan to get county chairmen to
condemn Republican appeals court judges who issued the ruling against the
state anti-sodomy law.  Reporter Julie Mason noted that the attack on the
Republican judges was scuttled after some of the other chairmen either
could not find or did not sign the letter drafted by the local party
(Houston Chronicle, ALocal Politicians Provided Us Plenty of Entertainment
in 2000,@ December 31, 2000, p. A-32).
Earlier in the coverage of the issue, the Chronicle leaned toward the
gay-rights side of the debate with the headline on another Mason story
titled, AGOP Chairman Raises Eyebrows With Letter to Appeals Judge@
(Houston Chronicle, AGOP Chairman Raises Eyebrows With Letter to Appeals
Judge,@ July 7, 2000, p. A-34).  The story was just as one sided, as
evidenced by the lead and first few paragraphs.



Power and politics never take a holiday.  The Harris County Republican
Party chairman is keeping busy these days, flexing his influence in various
chambers of might.  That=s fine, particularly if that=s what his party
wants him to do.  Certainly, he was re-elected in March         without
opposition.  But recently, Pollard has been meddling in legal areas that
raise questions about whether his activities on behalf of the party are
really what the party wants to stand for.

The Chronicle provided coverage of local State Representative Debra
Danburg=s effort to make a court ruling unnecessary by nullifying the law
first in the legislature.  Danburg, D-Houston, said the law banning anal
and oral sex between homosexuals is Aarchaic@ and keeping it on the legal
books forces the state to launch to mount costly defenses against
challenges (Houston Chronicle, ADanburg Again Files Bill Seeking Sodomy
Law=s Removal,@ January 20, 2001, p. A-31).
The Chronicle, in an editorial appearing on March 20, 2001 headlined ATime
for Texas to Let Go of Archaic Anti-Sodomy Law,@ echoed this theme of
Danburg=s that the state law is archaic.  The newspaper criticized the one
judge, J. Harvey Hudson, who had argued in favor of the state anti-sodomy
law, noting his written dissent from the 2-1 appeals court ruling was
Aweak.@  The editorial said:
The fact that he wrote in the opinion that homosexual sex is Awidely
perceived to be destructive and immoral,@ is evidence of the judge=s
personal view, as such intimate encounters also are widely perceived in our
society to be no one else=s business.  (Houston Chronicle, ATime for Texas
to Let Go of Archaic Anti-Sodomy Law,@ March 20, 2001, p. A-22)




Similarly, when the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2002 agreed to decide
the case, the Chronicle noted what it saw as the importance of the case on
the front page, reporting it most likely would lead to Athe most important
gay rights decision in two decades.@  In the second paragraph, reporter
Patty Reinert quoted Mitchell Katine, a Houston lawyer representing the two
men who had brought the suit, as saying, AWe=re having a good morning
here!@  (Houston Chronicle, ASupreme Court takes Houston Sodomy Case,@
December 3, 2002, p. A-1).
Some of the only coverage against the gay-rights position was connected
with another appellate ruling, a 7-2 decision by the full 14th Court of
Appeals on March 15, 2001, that resurrected the sodomy law from the earlier
smaller judicial panel from the same court.  In a story headlined, AAppeals
Court Upholds Sodomy Ban/Panel Overrules Gay-Rights Issue,@ Judge Hudson in
his majority opinion is quoted as saying that while Athe modern trend has
been to decriminalize many forms of consensual sexual conduct even when
such behavior is widely perceived to be destructive and immoral, our
concern, however, cannot be with cultural trends and political movements
because these can have no place in our decision without usurping the role
of the Legislature@ (Houston Chronicle, AAppeals Court Upholds State Sodomy
Ban/Panel Overrules Gay-Rights Issue,@ March 16, 2001, p. A-1).
Abilene and Lubbock, for the most part, provided its readers coverage from
the Associated Press wire service.  This perhaps reflected a lack of
interest in the issue, since no company resources were devoted to assigning
a reporter to the issue, and the long distance between these cities and
Harris County, where the arrests took place.  The stories in these papers
tended to be neutral or pro gay rights. One of the exceptions was a wire
story that quoted Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, stating the
sodomy law is Aappropriate@  (Abilene Reporter-News, APerry Says Texas
Sodomy Law is >Appropriate,@ December 4, 2002).  However, even this story
did not go beyond quoting the governor=s brief statement, which could be
construed largely as him fulfilling his constitutional responsibility to
support state laws in cases before the courts.
The Amarillo Globe-News also used the wire story on the governor=s
statement, but like the other out-state papers, its coverage reflected a
neutral or pro-gay rights tone.  The Globe-News was the only one of the
three newspapers to editorialize on the issue, and it issued a strong
pro-gay rights stand.  In an editorial headlined ARights Create State of
Confusion: Bedroom is No Place for Government,@ the paper stated:

0

Government at any level should not determine the legality of the sexual
activity of private citizens and consenting adults.  Certain segments of
society, or even the majority, may frown on such behavior, but it is simply
not the government=s business to regulate private sexual activity between
consenting adults that does not harm the participants or anyone else
(Amarillo Globe-News, ARights Create State of Confusion: Bedroom Is No
Place For Government,@ December 4, 2002).

   During the post-Lawrence period, coverage tended to be more balanced, as
noted above.
The discussion quickly turned, after initial articles dissecting the
significance of the Lawrence ruling, to a broader discussion of gay
rights.  Coverage of gay pride festivals and parades, usually held in late
June, focused on the excitement being felt within the gay community. The
Chronicle, in a city with a relatively high gay and lesbian population,
there was a keen interest in stories that looked at gay families.  For
example, on July 6, 2003, the Chronicle ran a New York Times News Service
story that looked at gay families.  Though the story had a neutral
headline, "Study looks at traits of gay families," the story was filled
with anecdotal evidence of how raising a family is a very real thing for
many gay people.  The pro-gay story began, "Keith Lee Grant and Daniel
Tamulonis had been partners for 15 years when Keith decided their
self-focused life was too empty – they had much more to give"  (Houston
Chronicle, July 6, 2003, p. 9).  The story went on to note that as many as
14 million children in the United States are being raised by at least
parent who is a gay man or lesbian.
          Coverage during this period, much shorter than the five-year
pre-Lawrence period, also was much more intense and, not surprisingly,
reflected a greater balance of pro-gay and anti-gay stories.  With the
debate turning from coverage of what many observers viewed as an archaic
anti-sodomy challenge to more contentious issues such as gay marriage,
adoption and ordination of gay church leaders, journalists perhaps
naturally tended to view the issue more from both sides.  The Chronicle's
coverage continued to tilt toward the pro-gay side, but the relative number
of stories considered balanced also was relatively high.
          This trend toward greater balance on the news pages also was evident in
the rural newspapers.  And these newspapers, with the exception of
Amarillo, continued to rely largely on wire services for their
coverage.  This could be expected given the relatively small and invisible
gay and lesbian population in these communities, and the fact these
newspapers have fewer resources to devote to statewide and national stories
in general.


   Conclusion

   The discussion of the articles and findings clearly show there was
little anti-gay bias evident in the articles in the Texas media during the
two periods examined. In fact, most of the coverage and all of the
editorials demonstrated antipathy toward the anti-sodomy statute, and
balanced coverage toward the decision and gay issues in general during the
post-Lawrence period.
    Several reasons for this relative support for gay rights appear to
exist.  First, according to Philip Berkebile, executive vice president of
the Texas Daily Newspaper Group, newspapers in the state have a reputation
for avoiding extreme positions and providing what they consider as fair
coverage of local and state issues.  "I've never really ever heard papers
labeled (as liberal or conservative)," Berkebile said in an interview (June
2003).  Rather, most newspapers, including the four included in this study,
try to steer toward a moderate position, Berkebile said.
   Second, out-state newspapers, including the papers in Abilene, Amarillo,
and Lubbock, are assisted in providing this fair coverage by utilizing the
resources of the Associated Press, which provides extensive coverage in
Texas of state issues.  This often substitutes for lack of news bureaus in
other major Texas cities, with the exception of the state capital in
Austin.    "They (papers) don't have bureau access," Berkebile said. "They
really rely on the AP out-state," Berkebile said.  The Associated Press has
a reputation for providing thorough and balanced coverage, and rewriting
stories that appear in member papers and distributing them statewide.  The
coverage in the three out-state papers shows this relative neutrality and
even a slight positive tilt as a result of the issue being on the political
agenda, and journalists more or less being obliged to cover developments in
the fight to strike down the sodomy law.  The fact that only one paper,
Amarillo's Globe-News, wrote an editorial on the issue likely demonstrates
the lack of local political importance the gay rights issue has in
out-state communities.
     Third, group ownership might play a limited role in neutralizing
coverage.  The Houston Chronicle is owned by Hearst Corporation, hardly
liberal yet with a reputation for giving local editors autonomy.  The three
out-state newspapers (Amarillo Globe-News and Lubbock Avalanche- Journal
with Morris Communications, and Abilene Reporter News with the E.W. Scripps
Company) also are known as middle of the road papers, Berkebile
said.  Hearst, Scripps, and Morris are among the twenty largest newspaper
groups in the country, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation
figures.  One can speculate that newspaper executives and reporters,
trained to reach out to readers of all kinds, try to strike a middle of the
road stance.   One should not, however, attribute this to group
socialization among Texas media.  According in Berkebile, there is not a
tendency within the Texas Daily Newspaper Association for editors and
publishers to socialize.  Instead, the papers draw their strength from
their ties to local communities.  Without a significant, visible gay
community in these cities, gay rights can easily get lost, Berkebile
added.  "I just don't think they (editors) get caught up or has interest
been expressed in these (gay rights) issues," Berkebile said.  In Texas,
the largest gay populations are in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and
San Antonio.  Thus, it makes sense that Houston Chronicle readers would
have the greatest concentration of stories and passion on the issue, since
it affects local readers and was a local story to begin with.
   Texans might have more religious conservatives than many other states,
but at least in this instance it appears that norms of journalistic
professionalism of covering all sides fairly appeared to hold
sway.  Ultimately, Texas newspapers are unlikely to either be strong
supporters or opponents of the expansion of gay rights.  Despite the
strength of the religious right in Texas, the traditions of Texas
journalism likely will steer daily newspapers like those studied here
toward a middle of the road stance.





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