Notorious Owner-Editor-Publisher Goes the Other Way on Long-Standing Gay Ad Ban.

"Maybe now I'll get some love."

CELEBRATING LIKE IT'S THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL, LITTLE ITALY - "It was the San Diego Press Club Awards that did it," says San Diego Reader head honcho Jim Holman of his stunning decision to begin allowing LGBT-related ads (along with strip club ads, Happy Ending massage parlor ads, escort services ads, abortion clinic ads, and men-seeking-appliances personals) in his weekly newspaper.

Holman took a big bite of humble pie and continued. "For years, I somehow managed to stay strong. I was careful to avoid KPBS when they were airing Editor's Roundtable, so that the pain of not being invited wouldn't get too intense. I politely refused invitations to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies conventions, just so I wouldn't cry in public as they passed over Duncan Shepherd yet again for the film criticism award. Whenever someone mentioned CityBeat, I stuck my fingers in my ears and sang 'La la la la la la la!' Whatever it took to hold on, I did it."

But, he said, when the San Diego Press Club released its list of winners in the 38th Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards and the Reader failed to capture even a single honorable mention, he broke down. "I just couldn't stand not having the approval of my fellow journalists. Their sweet, sweet approbation. I made a discovery that day: I am human, and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does. I'm thinking that once I get in line on the gay thing and all the rest of it, maybe they'll let me in."

Reached for comment, San Diego Press Club President Harry Clam scoffed, "I doubt it. It's nice to see Holman enter the 21st century, but the Reader is a rag and everybody knows it. Jerk."