Is the sexual orientation of Jim Neal relevant to his candidacy for the U.S. Senate? Yes, says The News & Observer, which disclosed Neal's sexuality on the front page Tuesday, under the headline "Gay man's race for Senate is a rarity." Neal is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole. So far, he is the only Democrat in the race.

The N&O reported that Neal acknowledged that he is gay in response to a question on the local Web site BlueNC.com. He would be one of the nation's few openly gay candidates for statewide office, the story said, and, if he wins the North Carolina nomination, only the second openly gay Senate nominee of a major political party in U.S. history.

What about the story merits attention on the front page, or even in the paper at all? Is a public figure's sexual orientation something that the newspaper should toss into the public arena?

The questions take on more relevance because of the high-profile cases of Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho and former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida. The media were criticized for making an issue of what the two officials do in their private lives, even though both had committed transgressions that were newsworthy.

A difference here is that Craig and Foley had sought to keep their sexuality private (Craig denies that he is gay), while Neal volunteered his in a public forum. "I am indeed," Neal said when asked whether he was gay on BlueNC. "No secret and no big deal to me -- I wouldn't be running if I didn't think otherwise."

N&O editors reasoned that the story was indeed a big deal. There are not that many openly gay candidates nationally, and Neal's sexuality would certainly be an issue in Bible Belt North Carolina. "It's unique," said Capitol Editor Bill Krueger. "It's unusual not just in North Carolina but nationally to have an openly gay candidate running for state office. Whether we like it or not, the reality is this will be an issue for many voters. I don't think we could ignore it. We would be accused of hiding the fact."

Krueger noted that the story put the gay issue in a political and historical context. It pointed out that two other acknowledged gays, a state senator and a state Appeals Court judge, are in high public office. It hasn't been that long since Sen. Jesse Helms tarred non-gay opponents by saying they took campaign contributions from gay advocacy groups. Neal's candidacy, Krueger said, would be a test of how much North Carolina voters' values have changed since that time.

That remains to be seen. The paper did not get a lot of response to the story, but I received a few e-mails from readers wondering how The N&O could put the story of a gay Senate candidate on the front page while burying inside the posthumous awarding of a Medal of Honor to a Navy SEAL. (I thought the Medal of Honor story was underplayed, too, but that's not related to the Neal story.)

Reader Keith Stroud said readers like him disagree with "the singling out and seemingly glorification of the lifestyle as something special, when in reality it is just another choice much like you or I have as to how we live our life -- with any resulting consequences."

I was curious as to how the story was seen among gay readers. Would they perceive it as overplaying Neal's sexual orientation? Just the opposite, apparently.

"I think gay people around the country are celebrating the story today," Mark Kleinschmidt, a Chapel Hill Town Council member, said Tuesday. "Wow. In Senator Jesse Helms' home state, a gay man is the only candidate in the Democratic primary to take his seat."

He added, "I think it was an appropriate story for the paper to run. It certainly is a curiosity."

Mike Nelson, a gay county commissioner from Orange County, said, "I think it's about time. I think the paper has held back in reporting about sexual orientation (of gay people), but yet the paper reports about straight people's sexual orientation all the time" simply by, for instance, noting that Elizabeth Dole is married to Bob Dole. He said The N&O wouldn't have been doing its job if it hadn't reported the Neal story.

I agree. Neal's candidacy as a gay man is as significant -- because of its uniqueness -- as the election last week of the nation's first Indian-American as governor, in Louisiana. The N&O didn't "out" Neal. He made it public himself. And it didn't glorify his lifestyle by putting the story on the front page. The man is running for the U.S. Senate. He is openly gay. That's a story.

The interesting story now is the fallout. The discovery that their only candidate is gay reportedly has Democrats scurrying for alternatives, and at least one candidate who had passed on the race, Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro, was taking another look. Maybe that tells us something about how much North Carolina has grown up as a state.

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