Bay Windows has announced that Susan Ryan-Vollmar has stepped down as editor and will be replaced by Laura Kiritsy.
Though in recent weeks her editorials took a turn for the better on trans issues, Ryan-Vollmar had long been a target of criticism from the QueerToday.com community for her often centrist and conservative views. Ryan-Vollmar was on the wrong side of the One ENDA fight, and a vocal critic of queertoday.com for spearheading the Ask Tell Act Coalition during Boston Pride this year.
Hopefully Kiritsy will keep social justice principles at the forefront of her editorial control and involve the most marginalized of our communities as much as possible in the content of Bay Windows so that once again we can be proud of our community's paper.
Good luck Laura!
3 comments:
Hey, Mark, my friend. Fortunately, truly rough and harsh views by Bay Windows ended when Jeff Epperly stopped being editor and Andrew Rapp took the helm after leaving North Carolina's blue skies for Boston's shores. While you may disagree with some of what Susan has written as editorials, I hope that you recognize that as editor, she has allowed other views to be posted as op eds, as articles by her reporters and even sided with us by her own keystrokes. Fortunately, these assertions don't have to rely on my memory or yours. An editorial content analysis would show that since Susan has taken the helm, we've seen MORE trans coverage than ever. And at the very least, it's light years ahead of where we were before. Laura is fantastic, and her contributions are great -- as are Ethan's -- and her choice as the next BW editor is a celebration. Diego
Diego,
Thanks so much for commenting :)
As editor I can't argue that there was a lot of trans coverage in Bay Windows and a variety of views, because I had op-eds published several times.
However, I can point you directly to commentary written by Ryan-Vollmar that was downright transphobic. And it was clear that her commentary was mostly centrist. As you know QueerToday is very very left, and so naturally we had some disagreements with her.
I wish her the best in her journey. And I wish Laura the best of luck as well.
At QT we don't shy away from criticizing content we find to be questionable and we don't shy away from praising content that we find wonderful. All are welcome to join the conversation and voice their opinions here.
Yeah, I have to side with Mark on this one...her own column each month has taken turns that are so vehemently anti-trans and conservative that it's difficult to believe that she is the one responsible for increased coverage of the trans community--wouldn't it go against her own values? It seems to make more sense to credit the relative landslide of trans issues getting coverage in the general media that has taken place during the time s r-v has been editor and the work of individual writers than someone who has been very vocal about her negative views on trans issues.
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