Newspaper refuses to run ad of two men kissing

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune--arguably the most influential newspaper in Minnesota--refused to run a gay pride ad because it showed two men kissing, according to a Minneapolis 5 Eyewitness TV news report. Ben Taylor, the newspaper's senior vice president of communications, told the station: "Our feeling was that this was an advertisement for an event, and two men kissing was clearly meant to be inflammatory. It was not in good taste in the context of what it was advertising." However, Jim Kelley, president of GLBT Pride, told the station that "to say the image of two men kissing is inflammatory in the city of Minneapolis, where we have a nondiscrimination policy for sexual orientation, is just appalling." Pride organizers say the paper runs other ads that show people kissing or locked in an embrace. According to 5 Eyewitness, the Star Tribune says it looks at each ad on an individual basis. The paper gave organizers a chance to submit a different ad, but they declined.