Leroy Aarons: The leadership behind NLGJA In April 1990, Leroy Aarons, then executive editor of The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, did a radical thing: While delivering results of the first survey of gays and lesbians in mainstream newsrooms to a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, he came out as a homosexual to a room full of mostly white, mostly male and mostly straight newspaper executives. The survey and Aarons’ disclosure helped pave the way for the creation of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. Read Full Text >

About the column

Across the Generations pairs Chips Quinn Scholars with pioneering figures in the history of newsroom diversity for conversations.

The generations project brings news history to life by having young journalists meet news people from eras past in the decades-old struggle for newsroom equality on the part of women, people of color and lesbians and gays.

If you know of someone who should be interviewed, or if you would like to conduct an interview with a news-history pioneer, contact CQ Content Editor Mary Ann Hogan.