Feb 10, 2006  |  By: Kevin Naff  | COMMENTS     

Ismail Merchant.

It’s time for mainstream media, including the Post, to grow up and take a more complete and honest approach to covering the news. If a reporter thinks that a medal-contending skater is gay, then ask him and report what he says.

When a famous gay person like Ismail Merchant dies, interview his longtime partner for the obituary. And if an openly gay police officer commits suicide amid charges of institutional homophobia in his district, then investigate it.

The very fact of an interview subject’s sexual orientation should not be considered a private issue any more than a heterosexual person who is asked about having a spouse or children.

When straight athletes, stars and other public figures are profiled in the media, they are always asked—and always answer—questions about their wives, girlfriends and children. It’s a frustrating double standard that those same kinds of questions are considered off limits to "eccentric" personalities.