The Daily Cougar embarrasses itself

Houston Pride Festival and Parade/The Daily Cougar

If you’re part of a student media outlet that covered an LGBT pride this weekend, good for you. There were a bunch going on around the country to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

From what I’ve found so far, both The Oklahoma Daily (University of Oklahoma) wrote an OK article with basic event coverage. One thing to look out for, though, is the ambiguous use of “came out” in this article:

“[I came out today] because it’s tradition, and we want people to know that we are good people because we don’t have the respect that we should have,” said Ariana Ree, a parade attendee.

In this instance, the attendee didn’t even say “came out” — the newspaper inserted that clarification into the quote. But as a reader, I first read that as this person was coming out. I still don’t know which is the case. Be sure when you cover events such as this, you ask every person you speak with how they identify and if they are out and comfortable being out in your newspaper.

Then, we must move on to The Daily Cougar, the student newspaper at the University of Houston. Not only does the staff try to define the word “gay” in its lede (“The word gay, according to Dictionary.com, means having or showing a merry, lively mood”), but it also makes sure to point out how people at this parade acted different than “normal” (“nowhere in Houston is one more likely to find a grown man belting out ‘I’m Every Woman’”).

On top of that, this reads as a column but isn’t advertised on the site as opinion. And it’s fine to take an event such as this and write an opinion piece, but think about how you can cheapen the movement by diminishing your opinion to “Oh, look at these people who are different from me. It’s nice to see that.”

Instead, ask yourself why this parade is happening and what is the cultural significance behind it. But taking the route the Cougar did is, simply put, embarrassing.