Twin Cities Pride Festival vs. Star Tribune

The Twin Cities Pride Board has filed a discrimination complaint against the Star Tribune.

The bitchfest started when the Pride Block Party advertising included an image of two men kissing. The Star Tribune refused to run the ad because, "Star Tribune's policy is not to show kissing in advertisements, heterosexual or otherwise" - Ben Taylor, Vice President of the Star Tribune. So, the Twin Cities Pride people spent a few days collecting advertisements that did show men and women kissing in movie and car advertisements. Somebody was making stuff up.

According to Living Out, a print only GLBT publication, Twin Cities Pride has attempted to obtain a written copy of the 'no kissing' policy. Ben Taylor said, "Each publisher, under law, can define standards of acceptability. We're not going to negotiate those. These are our standards of assessment. We're under no obligation to release our guidelines [in print] so we're not going to do that."

The McClatchy Company, based in Sacramento, CA, owns the Star Tribune. Assistant General Counsel for the McClatchy Company, Stephen J. Burns says, "The Star Tribune sought to support your organization by entering into a sponsorship agreement intended to increase the chances for success of the festival. In response, [GLBT Pride Twin Cities] has chosen to push a gay rights issue not contemplated by the contract..."

Eileen Scallen, an Attorney-at-Law providing pro-bono support to Twin Cities Pride, shoots back: "Apparently, McClatchy was surprised that a gay rights organization would push 'a gay rights issue'." Oh, you go girl! Twin Cities Pride, whatever your complaints against them may be, are sticking to their guns on this one. And good for them.

For the full-story, look for Living Out - Twin Cities at area newsstands.