At any job interview, there's that moment when the applicant is asked if he or she has any questions. It's an important moment: Employers often gauge how prepared and interested a candidate is in the position.
Tara Cavanaugh, BTL's new news editor, found herself asking an unusual question during her job interview for BTL: "I had to ask if it was okay that I was straight," she said. "Never had to ask that in an interview before!
"But then Jan (Stevenson, BTL publisher) leaned in as if she had a secret. In a low voice, she said, 'I actually know some straight people. There are even some in my family. So I'm okay with it.'"
Everyone in the room – Stevenson, Editor-in-Chief Susan Horowitz and Entertainment Editor Chris Azzopardi – burst out laughing. "That made me feel a lot better," Cavanaugh said.
So why did she want the job, even though she's not gay? She has plenty of reasons, she said. "I read a book on the history of the gay and lesbian press, and I loved how it was journalism with an activist bent," she explained. "I loved how LGBT newspapers formed a community for people who wouldn't otherwise have one. I wanted to be a part of it.
"That, and my mother figure, the woman who raised me, was gay. And I never understood why she couldn't marry her partner of 25 years. Why people treated her differently," Cavanaugh said. "So I'm excited to have this job. I want to work towards making things better. Making them more fair. Supporting this community in Michigan."
Cavanaugh earned her M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri in May. Previously, she worked for print/online news and public radio. She's also the founding editor of FemThreads, a website dedicated to feminism and fashion, and PoetSpeak, a website that features recordings of poets from all over the world.
