Sure enough, the client, who had a penchant for appearing shirtless in his insurance ads was furious at what I wrote. He threatened to pull his ads and worse. The editor, a principal partner at Window, never caved, refusing even to issue an apology. In another case, a group of activists threatened to launch a competing paper in New Orleans for the stated reason that they considered my column treason. The editor, again a principal owner of Window Media, declined their demand to stop publishing me and invited them to submit their own editorials instead.
Nothing infuriates the liberal defenders of free speech like the suggestion of more free speech.
People are right to question the consequences of Window's size. The stakes are too high. Gay newspapers aren't just information pipelines. They're often the only mirrors that reflect our humanity back to us. Nothing in Window's history indicates they're going to harm the gay press in the future.