Sitting on stage as a guest judge for The Center’s annual Nightmare on Normal Street costume contest a few years back, I got my first taste of what evidently comes with the job of editor for the Gay & Lesbian Times.

Emcee for the evening, Nicole – fittingly dressed as the evil queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – introduced me to the crowd, “Russell O’Brien, editor of the Gay & Lesbian Times.”

Amid the silence that ensued as I sat in my rather fetching boy scout ensemble, a woman began to shriek, hands cupped around her mouth: “Russ hates lesbians! Russ hates lesbians!” she jeered from the audience.

There I was dressed in khaki shorts, athletic socks and donning the traditional boy scout sash – looking every bit the lesbian-hating boy scout.

Sitting to my right, dressed as what else but a leather daddy, was my publisher, Michael Portantino. He turned to me and said, “What the hell did you do now?”

I just shrugged: “I dunno! It’s you that refuses to put the L before the G. Not me!”

I could see Nicole scowl at me from across the stage (this was before she decided that she likes me) prior to moving on to introduce Empress Ophelia, who, of course, received cheers from the audience.

After the contest, hoping my several scout merit badges would add credibility to my editor status, I tried to have a “professional” conversation with my heckler. It turned out that one of our social columns in Rocket magazine contained a joke (I repeat, a joke) about how lesbians were outstaying their welcome on Friday nights at Bourbon Street. But I guess it wasn’t all that funny. And, worse, apparently it meant that I must hate lesbians.

Throughout my years at the paper, I’ve offended just about everyone in our community. There was the transgender blip of ’05, the hotly contested fitness feature that had every local, gay personal trainer in a rage, and, once, a letter writer even accused me of discriminating against New Zealanders. You’d swear I have a square patch of hair atop my upper lip.

But most recently, I’ve angered the GLBT sports community. (Yes, apparently it is its own community.)

To make way for our new Health and Wellness section, our sports coverage was temporarily sacrificed. Not that anyone even noticed until an e-mail was circulated by one of our former sports contributors about our decision to nix the section. Soon letters began pouring in – as well as phone calls – about the GLT’s decision to “turn its back on the entire GLBT sports community.”

Eliminating sports only perpetuates the negative stereotype that gay men don’t or can’t participate in athletics, one caller argued.

Don’t worry. Before this lesbian-hating boy scout is strung up by a mob of angry softballers, let me assure you, you’ll get your sports.

Not to diminish the efforts of those who contributed to our sports section, but the page was simply not working. Week after week it was the least read section in our entire newspaper. That’s right, dead last for Web hits and zilch as far as community feedback goes. I felt by adding the Health and Wellness section, the GLT might appeal to a wider audience, and then I would work on finding new and creative ways to cover sports in our community.

I envision a section that is read by more than just the handful of really involved gay and lesbian athletes. We’ve tossed around the idea of having a sports blogger on our Web site, or a sports columnist (as seen on page 33 of this week’s issue) in lieu of the blow-by-blow reporting we normally publish. I’ve even been eyeing a column that covers national GLBT sports topics – all this in addition to our annual cover stories on sports topics.

I know this editorial will most likely earn me a few more hecklers, but, for the record, I haven’t turned my back on you. Scout’s honor.

Russell O’Brien

Editor In Chief