"Community discourse is the most important things journalism does. For that to work, we need to reflect all of our community."

- Mark N. Trahant,

Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor

In my capacity as editor of this newspaper, I see and hear a lot of things.

One thing I heard recently - via a couple of phone calls and a letter - was three readers' reaction to a front-page story we had on gays. The story explained how more gay couples were having children, not through adoption but through artificial insemination. The three readers, who I would say were middle-aged or older, told me they thought that the story was inappropriate for the front page. They thought the newspaper, through a story like this and its Editorial Board's position endorsing gay marriage, was trying to advance a homosexual lifestyle.

I also see stories from high school-age students on our teen page who say it is not a big deal to them if another teen is gay. My two college-age sons say the same thing.

But then I hear some things that come from the mouths of young people that don't back that up. When something is not cool or passe, it's "gay."

And one recent night, while out walking our dog, I saw a thin young man in his early teens walking down the street. A car filled with older teen boys sped by.

"You faggot!" one screamed at the younger teen.

So, which is it, you members of the Internet Generation? Have the attitudes towards gays changed? Or is that just a line masking the real truth?

As I mentioned in a column a couple of months ago, The Sun Chronicle was fortunate to have no less than a dozen college interns working in its newsroom this summer. I put the question to some of them.

One quickly responded with the line that homosexuality is no big deal among her generation, but meekly admitted that she uses "gay" in the derogatory sense from time to time. "It slips out," she said. "I guess I shouldn't say it."

Those conversations were the genesis for the three-part, front-page series that begins today on young people's attitudes towards homosexuality. We assigned a number of stories to some of our interns (others couldn't participate, mostly because of time constraints) as a project for these aspiring journalists to tackle between all the other things they helped us with this summer. I think you'll find it eye-opening and thoughtful.

Most of all, I hope you read it - but not, as those three readers told me recently, because we're trying to advance a homosexual lifestyle. Acceptance of gays - if they truly are accepted - is a seismic shift in American society. Allowing gays to marry is certainly one of the most profound changes of our time, reversing century-old beliefs and forcing us to ask some very basic questions: What is marriage? What is a family? As the quote at the top of this column suggests, what we're really trying to do with this series is promote thoughtful community discourse on one of the leading issues of our time. It's not an attempt to force a homosexual agenda on anyone.

My fondest hope is that the series will provoke many letters to the editor and online comments. And maybe it will get some people talking - young people and old people - about one of this age's most profound issues.

MIKE KIRBY is editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0344 or at mkirby@thesunchronicle.com.