Chibbaro is Society of Professional Journalists DC Pro Chapter’s First Ever LGBT PRESS Member to Receive Lifetime Honor
Veteran Washington Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro, Jr. will be inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists DC Pro Chapter’s Hall of Fame on June 14th, 2011. Chibbaro has covered the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Washington with distinction for more than 30 years as a reporter with the national’s oldest LGBT newspaper, the Washington Blade.
The induction of Lou Chibbaro, Jr. into the Society’s Hall of Fame on June 14th will mark the first time ever that a member of the LGBT community’s press has been chosen for such an honor.
“The criteria for this honor are simple: good journalism, practiced in Washington for at least 25 years,” said Steve Taylor, a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Professional Journalists DC Pro Chapter. “Some giants of journalism have preceded Lou into the Hall of Fame such as Ben Bradlee, Eleanor Clift, Jim Lehrer, Robert Novak and Helen Thomas. We believe that, based on his excellent work, Lou Chibbaro, Jr. deserves to stand with them. We are honored that he has accepted induction.”
Throughout his distinguished career, Chibbaro has covered some of the LGBT community’s most momentous stories including the AIDS crisis, anti-gay job discrimination, hate crimes and presidential politics.
“I was surprised and highly honored,” Chibbaro said. “It came as a complete surprise. … It’s a true honor to be selected in the company of others who have won this in the past. I believe the community benefits most by shedding light on the issues around it as fairly as possible and with each side given equal opportunity to express their views on an issue that might be controversial.”
To read the Washington Blade report on Chibbaro’s remarkable achievement, visit its newly redesigned website at:
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/05/16/blades-chibbaro-to-be-honored/
The Washington Blade was founded in 1969 as a black and white, one-sheet community newsletter distributed in D.C.-area bars. In October 2009, the Blade celebrated its 40th anniversary as an award-winning news source with a large following in print and online. Readers locally and around the world have come to rely on the Blade’s unmatched coverage of LGBT news, earning the paper the moniker “the newspaper of record for the LGBT community.
