Over the years the Anchorage Daily News has taken a forthright position in favor of gay rights, of including sexual orientation and gender identity in the city's antidiscrimination law. The newspaper has practiced what it's preached in its own hiring.

Those policies continue with today's editorial.

Having worked here for more than 30 years, I can say that I'm glad to work at a newspaper that aims to hire good people, no matter what their sexual orientation. I wouldn't want to work for a newspaper that refused to hire someone only because he or she was gay.

At the same time, I don't support the initiative amending the city's equal rights law to include gay and transgender people. I have reservations about the measure for both practical and symbolic reasons.

Yes, there's a contradiction at work here, at lease on the surface. But this is a yes vote I can't quite cast, and an editorial I can't honestly write, so I didn't write this one. Because it's only my name listed as editorial writer, this is for the record.