During the past year, we have trawled through thousands of articles on the web while selecting what we think might be of interest to you.  And of course we have favourites from those we selected!

Interestingly, many of our favourites were, it turns out, written by young writers as the start of journalistic careers – one of them by a teenage still at school!

The “cream of the crop” of the almost 5,000 newspaper and magazine articles that were featured during the year were from the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Helen Sturdy’s Living With the Enemy in the Evening Gazette told the story of Adam, a twenty-five years-old local man who has been living with HIV for 18 months, and Sarah, aged 34 who was diagnose HIV positive a year ago and who comes originally from Africa.  Sturdy’s article gave a local perspective to HIV/AIDS in the run-up for World Aids Day.

The offering from the Journal-Constitution in USA was a remarkable piece – remarkable as it was written by a 17-years-old who was still at school.  Ian Smith, who attends North Gwinnett High School in suburban Atlanta, wrote on how he founded the “Gay-Straight Alliance” at his school, despite the initial request to the school authorities to form the group being “met with a frozen glare”.  His “Op-Ed” article MY VIEW: Group Gives Gay Students Safe Haven can now only be accessed on the net through the Journal-Constitution’s paid-for archive.

Of all the feature-length articles, just one stands out as the “best of 2004”.  In the June 20 edition of the UK’s Independent on Sunday were 3,000 words by Beverly Knight, the British soul “diva”.  In Soul Survivor, Ms Knight, a graduate of the University of Gloucestershire, tells of her platonic relationship with Tyrone Jamison, a gay man who was to die of AIDS. Such was the power of this article there were not many dry eyes in ‘Independent’ homes that Sunday morning.

Two newspapers also share the “best series” of 2004.

The Journal, published in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, is recognised for its superb HIV/AIDS coverage at the end of November and beginning of December to coincide with World AIDS Day.  Writer Rhodri Phillips, the current Student Journalist of the Year, covered the world health crisis from Uganda.

The series started with AIDS: A Modern Tragedy on November 29 and continued with The Illness Robbed Him of His Childhood,  Orphaned, Raped and Living in Fear of Deadly Disease,  ‘I Knew My Children Were Dying of Aids’  and concluded with Gran's Tragic Tale of a Life Spent Burying Her Family.

Over in America, in September, the Washington Post started the four-parter “Young and Gay In Real America” by Anne Hull.  In the series, which was accompanied by an online discussion with the author on the Post’s website, Ms Hull travelled the States reporting on how young gay Americans coped with their sexuality.

Part 1 In the Bible Belt, Acceptance Is Hard-Won appeared on Sunday Sept 26.  It was followed the next day by A Slow Journey From Isolation. The following Sunday saw Braving the Streets Her Way and the series concluded with Using Her Voice to Rise Above.  Transcript of online discussion of parts 1 and 2 (Monday Sept 27) and Transcript of online discussion on the 4-part series (Monday October 4)

Turning from the serious side of life, there has to be humour.  And the funniest article we came across was in New York State’s Oldest Continuously-Published GLBT newspaper, The Empty Closet, on August 31.  Miss Tulip’s article “Petriots ‘R Us” poked a little fun at Florida “Governor Jeb Bush’s brother George W” and how he patted his golden retriever on the head during the Larry King Show and called it a Siamese to get the cat-lovers vote!  Ridiculously funny reading and some light relief in what was to become a tedious year of election campaigning.

30 December  2004