Gay Rights Drives Online News Agenda

Last week, bloggers returned to the hot-button subject of gay rights, a topic that has repeatedly proven to be of more interest to commentators online than to the mainstream press.

From March 1-5, 16% of the week's links in the blogosphere were about gay rights issues in the news, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. This is the second time in a month when the topic has been among the most discussed subjects. During the first week of February, gay issues including the military's policy of "don't ask, don't tell" were a major subject of discussion. It is also the sixth time the subject finished in the top five since PEJ began its New Media Index in January 2009. This past week, several different incidents drove the conversation. These included a protest at a Catholic Mass in the Netherlands, a change in health coverage for employees of Catholic Charities, and the acceptance of same-sex marriage license applications in Washington (DC)