Pennsylvania Newspaper Slams FAG FOREST

The February 16 edition of The Citizens’ Voice, a newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, featured the shocking repetitive use of anti-gay slurs in an editorial encouraging a police sweep of same-sex public sex acts in a local park.

“‘Fag Forest’ a sordid place; clean it up,” reads the headline. It begins, “‘Fag Forest,’ a section of Nesbitt park…is an area in need of a cleanup, in more ways than one.”

Referencing a February 15 news article in the paper entitled, “The City’s Dangerous Red Light Riverbank,” by Carol Crane, the editors say, “exposed yesterday in a special in-depth report were: homosexual activity and probably homosexual prostitution among the ruins of old park buildings; sex between young boys and adult males in the same vicinity; discarded sex-related paraphernalia ranging from a freebie entertainment newspaper listing phone sex and escort services to used condoms; shocking undesired encounters when people using the park for legitimate activities such as jogging come upon men engaging in sex; fears that the illicit activity in this ‘Fag Forest’ may be linked to the suspicious death of one local young boy–and perhaps numerous others.”

It calls for action, including police patrols, saying, “Since the way is known how to clear out ‘Fag Forest’ and make the area the nature preserve it should be, what has been the delay? A lack of concerted determination, it seems.” It then quotes an “anonymous source” who serves as the primary voice in the original article, saying “‘This is not a gay issue. It is an issue of public safety.'” It ends, “Replace the ‘Fag Forest’ with a park for the people.”

According to local PFLAG Chapter President Emily Brooks Novakowski, the original article makes no distinction between homosexuality and pedophilia, nor between the issue of consensual public sex and prostitution.

Instead, both the Citizens’ Voice editors and journalist Carol Crane blur the obvious distinction between them, implying that somehow consensual sex acts between men leads to child molestation, and even murder.

In a letter she wrote to the newspaper, she states, “The man you quoted as saying, ‘this is not a gay issue. It is an issue of public safety’ is absolutely right. So please do not turn this into a ‘gay issue.’ Your paper needs to shed some light on the real issues. Men, be they homosexual or heterosexual, who are having sex with young boys are pedophiles….[but] FBI statistics show that 95 percent of child molesters are heterosexual. There is also the problem of prostitution involving…often homeless…teenage boys. Where are the parents of these boys who allow their children to engage is such activities?”

The crimes in this park were only made a “gay issue” when a local sensationalist reporter and her newspaper’s editorial board connected the alleged murder of a teenage boy, still not confirmed by police, and the consensual acts between consenting adults.

Like Novakowski, GLAAD agrees with the anonymous witness. It is an issue of public safety. By repeatedly using the slur “fag” in both reporting and editorializing on the story, the Citizens’ Voice obfuscates this reality.

By failing to make the distinction between pedophilia and homosexuality, or even between being gay as an orientation and the same-sex activities in the park, the newspaper stirs up anti-gay hostility, which could lead to increased violence against gay people in the community. Through their sensationalist, gay-baiting tactics, the newspaper creates a real public safety issue for all who might be perceived as gay.

Tell the Citizens’ Voice that their derogatory language and gay-baiting put gay people in jeopardy and serve no legitimate public interest.

By Don Romesburg