Still Making Headlines in Arizona

LGBT issues continue to make headlines in Arizona, and shifting political winds have led to big updates to stories that we first mentioned on Read Between the Lines back in February.

News coverage has indicated that former openly gay state legislator Steve May is no longer running for Congress, and had also highlighted the landmark decision which means that Arizona will begin to offer state employees domestic partnership benefits.

There was more good news out of Arizona last week.  Despite the fact that a lot of folks thought it was a done deal, a November ballot constitutional initiative on marriage was amended to include basic protections for domestic partners.  With this amendment, it’s likely that the constitutional amendment proposal is pretty much dead in that state.

Certainly the fair media coverage of these issues, which took a close look at the lack of security gay families have in the state (a handful of those articles can be found here, here and here), likely helped to influence this debate in the legislature and in communities throughout the state.

The media has been doing a responsible job up to this point of documenting the shifting winds around these bills and other topics of importance to folks in Arizona. The dynamic of LGBT issues in the state, and the ways that they are discussed in the media, have played a role in the changes we’ve seen in Arizona in just one month.    

Paul Karr is Director of Media Field Strategy