Georgia Straight ‘Pride’ cover draws hate mail for featuring same-sex couple

It’s Pride week in Vancouver, and the signs are everywhere – from murals to newspaper front pages.

The Georgia Straight‘s “Pride” cover featured MLA Spencer Chandra-Herbert, his husband Romi and their new son.

And it drew what a Straight writer said was the first piece of hate mail the paper has ever received for an LGBTQ cover.

Craig Takeuchi joined CKNW’s Jon McComb Thursday morning to discuss the reaction.

LISTEN: Craig Tekeuchi describes getting hate mail for same sex couple on cover of Georgia Straight

Takeuchi said the Georgia Straight itself received plenty of encouraging messages related to the “Pride makers” cover, which focused on the couple who started a family earlier this year.

But one piece of hate mail stood out, and Takeuchi said Chandra-Herbert and his family received several more.

Takeuchi said the paper has had many Pride covers in the past, but never one that featured a same-sex couple on it.

When it has featured LGBT family combinations, such as couples or trans parents, they’ve been on the inside of the paper.

“I think the difference with this latest Pride cover was that it was on the exterior, which means that people passing by the newspaper boxes on the street would have seen it even if they didn’t mean to pick up the paper,” Takeuchi said.

READ MORE: City of Vancouver kicks off 2017 Pride Week

The negative reaction, even if far outweighed by the positive comments, is a reminder about the value of making same-sex families visible to the public, he added.

There are some positive examples of showcasing same-sex couples in popular culture, such the TV program Modern Family, Takeuchi said.

But they’re few and far between, according to him, and that visibility for LGBTQ families in media is still badly needed.

“It helps to normalize and familiarizie people with these images.”