Earlier this week, Newton Daily News editor Bob Eschliman posted an article to his personal blog. The post accused “the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystopo” of trying “to make their sinful nature right with God.”
Normally, One Iowa would simply dismiss this kind of hurtful rhetoric found in a personal blog. However, Mr. Eschliman is editor of the only daily paper published in Jasper County. As an editor whose paper has 30,000 unique visitors and 300,000 page views per month, his opinion matters. How can Mr. Eschliman and his paper write objective news articles about LGBT people and their families when his own personal opinions are so vehemently insulting?
For starters, the alphabet “LGBTQYZ” analogy is simply sophomoric. In addition, the accusation that our community is somehow rewriting the Bible is baffling. Most offensive is the reference to the Gestapo. The Geheime Staatspolizei served the Nazi Party as a secret police force. Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler were among its early leadership. At the Nuremberg trials, the Gestapo, with the SS (Schutzstaffel), were condemned as criminal organizations for crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Mr. Eschliman’s characterization of the LGBT movement as the “Gaystapo” is offensive on so many levels. We are a community that stands for equality, for human and civil rights. We have worked tirelessly moving from the margins to the mainstream. We have earned our voice and we have done so with dignity and with grace.
Clearly, there is still a great deal more work to do. One Iowa will continue to educate people all over the state about the realities of the LGBT community. We are your friends, your family, your neighbors and your co-workers. We embrace our community and our families like anyone else. Mr. Eschliman would do well to recognize that, even if he doesn’t understand it.
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To connect us, in any way, to the obscenity that was the Gestapo is offensive to the LGBT community and our allies. I’m certain it’s also offensive to Iowa’s Jewish community, and should be offensive to all Iowans. I know we have some LGBT families who live in Newton who feel personally vilified by Mr. Eschliman’s remarks. This is not okay.
A small town daily is a great responsibility. It requires its editor to adhere to the tenets of journalistic objectivity. Perhaps Mr. Eschliman should decide whether he is an opinion blogger or a newspaper editor.
He should not—no, he cannot—be both.