by Joe Siegel

SAN FRANCISCO — Leroy “Roy” Aarons, the founder of what was then known as the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, is the subject of a new documentary entitled “Here I Am World, All of Me at Last.”

A portion of the show was screened to mark the 35th anniversary of the organization at the NLGJA Convention on September 12, 2026, in San Francisco.

Aarons founded the organization with a handful of journalists who had spent their careers in the closet, hiding their sexual orientation from their co-workers.

In presenting the film, director and producer Senta Scarborough said that making it “literally changed my life.”

“It was a story that I felt needed to be told. I think as journalists, we sometimes don’t do a good job of telling our own stories. We’ve been told ‘don’t be a part of the story, you’ve got to be objective.’ I understand that’s an important ethic of journalism. It’s also important for us to break down those barriers so [the straight community] can also see us as humans and understand the work that we do and why we do it,” said Scarborough.

Scarborough is an assistant professor and head of the journalism program at Eastern Tennessee State University. She is a lifetime member of NLGJA, where she has served two terms as a national board member.

Scarborough interviewed many queer journalists for the film, including Victor Zonana, Stephen Gendel, Marc Malkin, and co-founder Wakoh Shannon Hickey.

Vintage interview footage of Aarons shows the passion he felt toward changing the environment for LGBTQ journalists. Aarons noted in one clip that he made the difficult choice to come out at a time when 90 percent of journalists were “living in isolation and silence.”

Aarons also had an influence on the way issues about the community were reported on by media outlets.

“Roy made sure gay and lesbian issues were in conversation about civil rights,” said Alyse Montiel.

Karen Bailis, an editor at the New York Times, and Linda Villarosa, a contributing writer to the New York Times magazine, both talked about how one of the goals of NLGJA was to provide equal treatment of LGBTQ people in the newsroom.

At the first NLGJA Convention in 1992, the members marched in the San Francisco Pride Parade, where they carried a banner with the organization’s name.

“We were all crying,” recalled television reporter Hank Plante, noting the event was “empowering.”

Aarons was also referred to as a “renaissance man” and a “champion for opportunity across the board.”

Aarons enjoyed a long and distinguished career in journalism. He worked at the Washington Post for 14 years, from 1962 to 1976. He also co-wrote a play based on the Pentagon Papers and authored a book, “Prayers for Bobby.”

In 1985, Aarons started We the People —The Voice, a monthly LGBTQ newspaper in Northern California for 27 years.

Aarons served as NLGJA’s president until 1997 and remained on the board until his death in 2004. In 2005, Aarons was inducted into NLGJA’s Journalists Hall of Fame. On its 15th anniversary in 2006, NLGJA established the annual Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship Award for a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender student pursuing a journalism career. CNN provided an inaugural gift of $100,000 to fund the scholarship.

IN THE NEWS
Volume 28
Issue 8