Gay Rights: Not Important Enough for the American Edition of Newsweek

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I love comparing what goes in the American editions of the newsweeklies to what goes in the international editions.

In the American edition of Newsweek this week, there is a Hillary Clinton cover story described thusly on TAPPED: “This piece is a long, tepid regurgitation of Clinton’s career with little new insight.”

On the cover of the international edition, a story called “Legal in Unlikely Places: Now mature in the west, gay power is growing worldwide, even in the land of machismo.” The story isn’t in the American edition at all.

I’ll let TAPPED provide the final analysis:

Seems that both social and legal acceptance of homosexuality is rapidly increasing in some unexpected parts of the world. South Africa legalized civil unions in November 2006, making them the first developing nation to do so, and former Catholic strongholds like Latin America are also warming to civil unions. They’ve been legalized in Mexico City and Buenos Aires, and in Colombia, a bill is working its way through the National Congress that would grant full rights to health insurance, inheritance and social-security benefits to gay and lesbian couples.

Money quote: “The Catholic Church was facing a credibility crisis,” says [a] longtime Mexico City-based gay-rights activist… “So many of its leaders… knew that if they fiercely opposed the gay-union law, the news media would eat them alive.”

Unlike in the U.S., where … this article doesn’t even appear in Newsweek.

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

With just hours left, we need a huge surge in reader support to get to our $400,000 year-end goal. Whether you've given before or this is your first time, your contribution right now matters. All gifts are 3X matched and tax-deductible.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do. That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

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