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Another round: Post staffer says he never implied homophobia
By: Tara Palmeri
11/05/09 11:00 PM EST
Oh, no, he didn't.
As if the great Washington Post punch of 2009 didn't get enough attention, someone had to bring up homophobia, or at least hint at it.
Postie Hank Steuver penned a blog post Wednesday pondering why the term "c---sucker" set longtime Style editor Henry Allen off so much that he bopped fellow staffer Manuel Roig-Franzia in the face.
"I would someday like to ask Henry if it was the insulting delivery of the word, or the subtext of gayness that the word implies that angers him most?" Steuver wrote.
His thoughts soon got picked up by Gawker, which jabbed Steuver for raising the issue of "homosexual hatred."
Now Steuver, who is openly gay, is trying to clear the air.
"I, in no way, think Henry is a homophobe," the Post reporter told Yeas & Nays. "I just wonder why straight men say that to straight men," he added.
He said he wrote the blog post because he was interested in the language of Friday's newsroom argument at Post, which pitted Allen and Roig-Franzia against each other, and got so much media attention that it warranted a video re-enactment from the Washington City Paper's staff.
"It's more of a semantics thing," he continued.
Steuver has spent "nine wonderful years" under Allen's editorship and told Yeas & Nays that he even e-mailed the retiring editor last weekend to check up on him after the fight.
Several phone calls and an e-mail to Allen went unreturned.
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