Editing Leroy F. Aarons

{{Short description|American journalist, editor, author, and playwright}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2014}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name             = Leroy Aarons
| image            = RoyAarons.jpg
| honorific-suffix =
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1933|12|8}}
| birth_place      = [[The Bronx]], New York, United States
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2004|11|28|1933|12|8}}
| death_place      = [[Santa Rosa, California]], United States
| alma_mater       = [[Brown University]], [[Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism]]
| occupation       =
| partner          = Joshua Boneh (1980–2004)
| religion         =
| website          =
}}
'''Leroy "Roy" F. Aarons''' (December 8, 1933 – November 28, 2004) was an American [[journalist]], editor, author, playwright, founder of the [[National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association]] (NLGJA), and founding member of the [[Maynard Institute for Journalism Education]]. In 2005 he was inducted into the NLGJA Hall of Fame.

==Early life==

He was born in Bronx, New York, on December 8, 1933 to [[History of the Jews in Latvia|Latvian-Jewish]] immigrant parents.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leroy F. Aarons : NLGJA |url=https://www.nlgja.org/blog/2005/05/leroy-f-aarons/ |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=nlgja.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Leroy F. Aarons Aarons graduated ''[[Latin honors|cum laude]]'' from [[Brown University]] and earned an MS from the [[Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism]]. He served in the Navy and Naval Reserve, attained the rank of lieutenant, and was a copyeditor at the ''New Haven Journal-Courier.''

==At ''The Washington Post''==

Aarons worked at the ''Post'' for many years. As an editor and a national correspondent, he served as New York bureau chief and later established the paper's first Los Angeles bureau.<ref>Jon Thurber. November 30, 2004. Leroy Aarons, 70; Editor Founded Group for Gay, Lesbian Journalists [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-nov-30-me-aarons30-story.html]</ref> He covered major events of the 1960s and 1970s such as the assassinations of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Robert F. Kennedy]], urban riots, and government scandals.

Aarons had a front-row seat when the ''[[Pentagon Papers]]'' story surfaced. As Los Angeles bureau chief, he covered California-related events in the case, including what work Daniel Ellsberg had been doing for the [[Rand Corporation]] and how he managed to remove the Pentagon Papers from Rand headquarters.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The scandal that forced a president to resign was [[Watergate]], and the ''Post'' was the paper that broke the story. Because of his role at the paper during the Watergate reporting, Aarons was hired as an accuracy consultant for the ''Post''-centered film about the scandal, ''[[All the President's Men (film)|All the President's Men]]''.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

==Work with Robert C. Maynard==

In 1981 Aarons met Israeli computer consultant Joshua Boneh at his [[Jewish Community Center]] in Washington D.C.<ref name=jweekly/> He followed Boneh to Israel in 1982 where he covered the [[1982 Lebanon War|Lebanon War]] for ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''.<ref name=jweekly/> The two celebrated their 20th anniversary with a [[commitment ceremony]] at the same JCC where they met.<ref name=jweekly/> Aarons joined the ''[[Oakland Tribune]],'' urged by former colleague [[Robert C. Maynard]]. Maynard had purchased the declining ''Tribune'' and recruited Roy to be its features editor.

In the 1970s Aarons had joined Maynard in founding what would become the [[Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education]] (MIJE). Maynard had been working with a summer program for minority journalists at [[Columbia University]], and he urged Aarons to join its faculty.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} In 1976, the program moved to the [[University of California, Berkeley]] as the Summer Program for Minority Journalists.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} It later became MIJE, a model program in training and supporting minority journalists.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}

At the ''Tribune'', Aarons rose to executive editor and then to senior vice president for news, where he worked for greater staff diversity.<ref name="Maynard Institute">[http://www.mije.org/robertmaynard Maynard Institute] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919045939/http://www.mije.org/robertmaynard|date=September 19, 2008}}</ref> He led his team to a 1990 [[Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography|Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography]] of the [[1989 Loma Prieta earthquake]]. The following year he retired from journalism.

==Activism==

In 1989 the [[American Society of Newspaper Editors]] (ASNE) asked Aarons to coordinate a survey of gay and lesbian journalists. Responses from 250 print journalists revealed that most were closeted in their newsrooms. An overwhelming majority said coverage of gay issues was "at best mediocre." Fewer than 60 percent had told colleagues about their sexual orientation; fewer than 7 percent said their work environments were good for gays.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} At ASNE's national convention in 1990, Aarons presented the results and closed his speech by coming out.<ref name="jweekly">{{cite news|last=Wall|first=Alexandra J.|title=Leroy F. Aarons, pioneering gay journalist, dies at 70|url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/24461/leroy-f-aarons-pioneering-gay-journalist-dies-at-70/|accessdate=August 6, 2012|newspaper=J Weekly|date=December 2, 2004}}</ref> Four months after his speech, Aarons convened six journalists in his California dining room to launch the [[National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association]] (NLGJA).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leroy Aarons -- Tribune editor started gay journalists group / Washington Post, Time writer later led Oakland paper |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/30/BAGCRA3K571.DTL |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050920195815/http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/30/BAGCRA3K571.DTL |archive-date=2005-09-20 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=www.sfgate.com}}</ref> He was its president until 1997, and remained on the board until his death.<ref>[https://www.washblade.com/advertising/eTearsheets/12-03-2004/014.pdf Brian Moylan. Washington Blade. December 3, 2004]{{Dead url|date=July 2024}}</ref>

After working for over a year, in Fall 2003, Aarons, Dane S. Claussen, Amy Falkner, Rhonda Gibson, and others relaunched the then-GLBT Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC). Aarons asked Claussen to serve as the first Head, but he could not because he already was to be 2003-4 Head of AEJMC's Mass Communication & Society Division. David Adams and Sue Lafky served as the first Co-Heads, with Claussen as Vice-Head/Program Chair, and Aarons as Secretary. Aarons, then teaching at the [[University of Southern California]], followed that up by persuading the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) to add sexual orientation content in its curriculum diversity standard.

On its 15th anniversary in 2006, NLGJA established the annual Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship Award for a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender student pursuing a journalism career. [[CNN]] provided $100,000 to fund the scholarship. The AEJMC LGBTQ Interest Group's Teaching Committee also awards, generally every two years, its Leroy F. Aarons Award for lifetime contributions to university teaching and/or research related to the LGBTQ communities.

==Influence in journalism==

In the 1970s, Aarons collaborated with Robert Maynard in starting programs to train people of color for journalism careers, then switching to [[LGBT]] issues in journalism.

Aarons believed{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} that coverage of the gay community, as with other minorities, required training of journalists. He began to lobby journalism schools to include gay issues in their [[diversity training]]. In 1999, as a visiting professor of journalism at the [[USC Annenberg School for Communication]], he founded and directed its Sexual Orientation Issues in the News program. Adapted by universities,{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} the program analyzes how the media has shaped public perception of people and issues since the early 20th century. In 2003, Aarons, Dane S. Claussen, David L. Adams, and several other U.S. journalism professors relaunched the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Interest Group of the [[Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication]]. The group biannually presents the Leroy F. Aarons Award for career contributions to media-oriented education and research affecting LGBTQ.

In 1985, Aarons started We the People - The Voice North Bay's LGBT Community, which was a monthly newspaper for 27 years.

==Music and opera==

Aarons had a love of music and often invited colleagues and friends to his home in California for sing-along parties.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} In the last decade of his career, Aarons turned to opera, writing the libretto for ''Monticello''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-19 |title=Monticello: The Opera |url=http://monticellotheopera.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919165136/http://monticellotheopera.com/ |archive-date=2017-09-19 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=monticellotheopera.com}}</ref> Composed by Glenn Paxton, ''Monticello'' portrays the love affair between [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[Sally Hemings]]. L. A. Theatre Works produced the original work in 2000.

After the [[September 11 attacks|attacks of Sep 11, 2001]], Aarons wrote the libretto for ''Sara's Diary, 9/11'', an opera composed by his collaborator on ''Monticello'', Glenn Paxton. A song cycle, this work is a fictional account of a pregnant woman, who, after her husband dies in the tragedy, experiences deeply mixed emotions. It premiered at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center on Sep 8, 2003 in commemoration of the unprecedented attacks.

==''Prayers for Bobby''==

In 1989 Aarons read a newspaper article about the suicide of a young gay man, Bobby Griffith, and its effects on his mother. After he left daily journalism in 1991, he researched the story in depth. The result was his first book, published by [[HarperCollins]] in 1995, ''[[Prayers for Bobby (book)|Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Prayers for Bobby |url=https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780062511232/prayers-for-bobby/ |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=HarperCollins Australia |language=en-AU}}</ref>  ''[[Prayers for Bobby]]'' premiered on January 24, 2009, as a [[Lifetime Television|Lifetime]] TV film starring [[Sigourney Weaver]] in her first made-for-television film.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barney |first=Chuck |date=2009-01-22 |title=Prayer for Bobby tackles difficult subject |url=https://www.chron.com/culture/main/article/prayer-for-bobby-tackles-difficult-subject-1746517.php |website=Chron}}</ref>

==Other works==

In 1991 Aarons revisited the ''Pentagon Papers'' case, co-authoring the [[docudrama]] ''Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers'' with [[Geoffrey Cowan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.topsecretplay.org|title=Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306153612/http://topsecretplay.org/|date=2021|archivedate=March 6, 2021}}</ref> That year it aired on [[National Public Radio]], performed by [[Ed Asner]] and [[Marsha Mason]]. The play won the [[Corporation for Public Broadcasting]]'s Gold Award for best live entertainment program on public radio. ''Top Secret'' still tours colleges nationwide as a production of [[L.A. Theatre Works]].

==Death==

On November 28, 2004, Leroy Aarons died of cancer in Santa Rosa, California. He was 70 years old.

At the time of his death, Aarons was working on another play, ''Night Nurse'', about South Africa's [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]], for which he and his life partner of 24 years, Joshua Boneh,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Douglas |date=2004-11-30 |title=Leroy F. Aarons, 70, Founder of Gay Journalist Group, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/obituaries/leroy-f-aarons-70-founder-of-gay-journalist-group-dies.html |access-date=2025-05-08 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> had spent a month in South Africa doing research.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leroy Aarons; Started Gay Journalists Group (washingtonpost.com) |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20994-2004Nov29.html |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=www.washingtonpost.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
* [http://www.leroyaarons.com Roy Aarons Official Website]
* {{C-SPAN|33037}}
* [http://www.prayersforbobby.com Prayers for Bobby]
* [http://www.topsecretplay.org Top Secret: Battle for the Pentagon Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306153612/http://topsecretplay.org/ |date=March 6, 2021 }}
* [http://www.monticellotheopera.com ''Monticello''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919165136/http://monticellotheopera.com/ |date=September 19, 2017 }}
* [http://www.annenberg.usc.edu Annenberg School for Communication]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070503222738/http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/soin/ Annenberg Sexual Orientation Issues in the News Program]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312192813/http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1130-13.htm NLGJA press release announcing Aarons' death]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081120040129/http://www.mije.org/roy_aarons Maynard Institute announcement of Aarons' death]
* [https://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4192390 NPR tribute to Aarons]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090611013014/http://www.nlgja.org/awards/hof_aarons.htm NLGJA Hall of Fame Bio]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aarons, Leroy F.}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:American editors]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in New York (state)]]
[[Category:American LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American LGBTQ journalists]]
[[Category:Writers from the Bronx]]
[[Category:United States Navy officers]]
[[Category:Gay dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Gay journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:21st-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Gay Jews]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American gay writers]]
[[Category:American people of Latvian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American LGBTQ military personnel]]
[[Category:Gay military personnel]]
[[Category:Jewish American military personnel]]
[[Category:Brown University alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:21st-century American journalists]]