Joplin Globe explains to its readers what LGBT means

Nothing is more amusing than when our area's newspaper of record, the Joplin Globe, has to localize a national story about a subject that, for the most part, it has totally ignored over the years.

Such a case happened when the U. S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act Wednesday and the Globe had to localize it. Given the task of following the newspaper's usual approach and finding some people on both sides of the issue was veteran reporter Roger McKinney.

The gay marriage package was at the top of page one of the print edition, with the Associated Press article on the left and McKinney's on the right, with an AP photo completing the package.

The Globe story was the only one that devoted an entire paragraph to explaining what LGBT was to those who might have thought it was Large Gray Buckskin Trousers or Lunchmeat, Gravy, Bacon and Tomatoes.

I would be curious to know if McKinney put that explanation in on his own or if an editor thought it needed to be done. If an explanation was required, it probably would have been better to have put it in parentheses right after the acronym rather than devoting an entire paragraph to it and revealing just how uncomfortable the Joplin Globe was with this story.

It is a good thing that the Globe decided to localize this story since it is the only bylined story in the A section that is about Joplin.

Didn't anyone tell the Globe that news is happening in this city every day. You don't even have to take the national story of the day and localize it to find something important going on in Joplin.

Should I mention those 100 teachers who are leaving the Joplin School District.

I suppose I shouild since the Globe still hasn't.