And Say Hi to Joyce America's First Gay Column Comes Out

The writer of the first weekly newspaper column to be written from a gay point of view discusses the struggles of gay couples, gay parents, the AIDS crisis, and other topics, and celebrates individuals admired by the gay community.

This book collects Price's engaging and spirited column about gay and lesbian life in America, which in 1992 began running in the conservative Detroit News and now appears in over 40 papers. She visits a gay rodeo (participants' T-shirts read "I've fallen and can't giddyup"); invokes Bugs Bunny's flirtations with Elmer Fudd in discussing the rise of gay studies; and takes careful aim at the ban on gays in the military, at antiquated, selectively enforced sodomy laws and at the inflammatory rhetoric of prominent conservatives like Pat Robertson. Price's analyses of such diverse issues are grounded in her relationship with Murdoch-the debut column confronted the question "how do I introduce the woman I've lived with for six years?" Murdoch, also a journalist, discusses the substantial impact of the column (one chapter is called "Why Angry Men Can't Spell"), emphasizing in good-humored prose the importance-and the rarity-of "a gay voice" in mainstream journalism.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In May_ 1992, mainstream journalism registered a major jolt when the Detroit News started the first gay column ever to run regularly in a daily newspaper. Here, Price intersperses commentary by her life partner, Joyce Murdock, among the first 18 months' worth of the weekly feature, which aims to inform and reassure gay and lesbian teens; educate heterosexuals on the facts of gay life; and communicate the joys, sorrows, and mundanities of their life together. Price's wit frequently sparkles, as when pondering the lack of a proper designation for her partner, she notes, "In just one hundred years, we've gone from the love that dares not speak its name to the love that doesn't know its name." After rejecting girlfriend, lover, spouse, and others, Price settles on a reader's suggestion and thereafter refers to Joyce as her lovemate. Murdock says that response to the column has made the couple less naive and more optimistic, that gays enjoy far more social support than many realize, and that one person's voice can make a difference. Whitney Scott