So, who is stereotyping whom?
On Feb. 2, a story on the Metro section cover focused on the Springfield High School cheerleading team. Particular emphasis was on Tyler Walker — or, as the headline called him, “cheerleading’s boy wonder.”
Walker’s “high voltage electrical current,” described in the story by reporter Noelle Crombie, was apparent in the photo of Walker with his teammates.
The story was written as an advance to the state high school cheerleading competition held that weekend. As it turned out, Springfield’s squad took first place in its division to continue a tradition of cheerleading championships.
Two references in that story caught the eye of city officials. One referred to Springfield as a “blue-collar town.” The other noted that the city’s voters were the first in Oregon to pass an anti-gay rights ordinance. That was in 1992, a time when such proposals appeared on a number of ballots in Oregon.
The Springfield City Council asked Joseph J. Leahy, the city attorney, to respond to those two references. He wrote to Therese Bottomly, managing editor for news at The Oregonian. He and I talked as well.
The gist of his comments: The anti-gay ordinance was never applied, and the state Court of Appeals later ruled that such local ordinances were pre-empted by state legislation and could not be enforced. What’s more, last year voters approved a new city charter that did not include that invalid ordinance.
As for “blue collar,” Leahy said that he attaches no ill meaning to the phrase. His father was a longshoreman. To a lot of people, “blue collar” implies a roll-up-the-sleeves and do-the-job attitude.
However, he said, some people see it as shorthand for what he found in a dictionary definition — as a reference to unskilled or semiskilled workers — and use the phrase disparagingly.
Leahy maintained that Springfield’s industries today require skilled workers.
Springfield long has suffered in comparisons to Eugene, the university city next-door. These days, Leahy said, Springfield is different from the city that some people think it is.
“References to outdated laws and stereotypes are not only incorrect, but they perpetuate stereotypes,” he wrote. “This is ironic in an article which, in part, discussed the negative effects of stereotyping a male cheerleader.”
Kay Balmer, a senior editor, was editor for the story. She also was city editor of the Eugene Register-Guard in 1992.
She intended no disparagement of the city. “My feeling,” she said, “was that we were saying ‘working class,’ which I think, if you look at the demographics, you’d find would be the case.” She was not hinting at anything demeaning.
As for the anti-gay rights matter, Tyler Walker, as the story said, does not hide the fact that he is gay. Nor do his parents, who are proud of his achievements.
“It said so much about him, his courage, to be out in a town with this history,” Balmer said. “It spoke so directly to his courage.”
To the concern of some Springfield officials, it also spoke to that city’s past and a vote that has lingered in memory, if not on the books.
Given the historical context, Balmer and Crombie reported honestly. The issue was relevant.
Editors could have noted, perhaps parenthetically, that the ordinance long has been a dead issue. Not everyone picking up this newspaper knows the political history of the state and its extended, sometimes rancorous, debate over gay rights.
Even with the reference, the story signaled that Springfield has seen change in the past decade, symbolized in part by one energetic young man and his colleagues, friends and other supporters. I suspect that that image is the one most readers took with them.
You can reach Dan Hortsch at 503-221-8221 or toll free from outside the 503 area at 877-238-8221, by e-mail at publiceditor@news.oregonian.com.
