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For the Australian cricketer, see Nick Benton (cricketer).
Nicholas F. Benton
Born (1944-02-09) February 9, 1944 (age 80)
Ross, California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesNick Benton
EducationWestmont College (B.A., 1965),
Pacific School of Religion (M.Div., 1969)
Occupation(s)Owner, publisher, and editor-in-chief of the Falls Church News-Press
Known forJournalist, Gay liberation activist, Chamber of Commerce leadership

Nicholas F. "Nick" Benton (born February 9, 1944) is the founder, owner, and editor of the Falls Church News-Press, a weekly newspaper distributed free in Falls Church, Virginia, and in parts of Fairfax County, Arlington County, and Washington D.C.

Benton has served twice as the president of the local Chamber of Commerce, been named Falls Church's "Pillar of the Community" twice and "Business Person of the Year" once. He has authored a weekly national affairs column in his periodical since the 1990s, and his support for gay rights put him on the cover of Metro Weekly as “Citizen Nick” in 2007.

Life and work

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Born in Ross, California, Benton earned a degree in English from Westmont College (a Christian college)[1]) in 1965. After college he was a reporter and sports writer for the Santa Barbara News-Press. in 1965. After college he was a reporter and sports writer for the Santa Barbara News-Press.[2] He obtained a master of divinity degree in 1969 from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. He became a contributor to the underground newspaper Berkeley Barb, enjoying the alternative weekly’s freedom to publish on counterculture subjects from women’s liberation to rock music,

Gay Liberation Front

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Benton helped found the Berkeley Gay Liberation Front and wrote the first editorial for the newspaper Gay Sunshine. [2] While working for the Barb, Benton decided to come out with his gay identity—just before the 1969 Stonewall Riot in New York’s Greenwich Village that launched the gay rights movement. His articles, he later wrote, “promoted the notion that fully actualized, gay liberation had the potential to be socially transformative.” As a moonlighter, Benton co-produced a pair of issues of his own fledgling gay newspaper, The Effeminist. Beginning in 2010, Benton revived his gay activism, publishing 100 consecutive weekly columns in his newspaper and also in the D.C. gay magazine, the Metro Weekly, [3] The columns were then compiled into a book entitled, Extraordinary Hearts: Reclaiming Gay Sensibility's Central Role in the Progress of Civilization. [4]

Lyndon LaRouche organization

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Benton worked for the Lyndon LaRouche organization from 1974 until the late 1980s, first as a political organizer, and later as the Washington D.C. bureau chief and White House Correspondent for LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review.[5] In 2022, Benton would write that in the 1970s he fell “gradually into the nasty cultist climate of that unfortunate decade, becoming for a time a sad tool of the late cult leader, the pro-Moscow” LaRouche. “But I left that organization with extreme prejudice long ago, careful to elude the great howls of protest that someone who broke free elicited from the leadership.”

Fall Church News Press

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He founded the Falls Church News-Press in March 1991, and in March 2021 celebrated the periodical's 1,560th weekly edition. Its front-page slogan: “The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally Owned Paper of Record, Serving Northern Virginia.” The paper—originally written largely by Benton himself--combines small-town booster coverage of schools, parades and city government with development controversies and national commentary for the audience of many federal employees and tech executives. Benton is an active philanthropist. His paper has donated funds for college scholarships for local Meridian High School students as well as support for the school’s anti-bullying campaign and the scoreboard for its ball park. He helped found the Diversity Affirmation Education Fund of the Falls Church Education Foundation. He was named an “Outstanding Virginian” by Equality Virginia in 2012.


Personal life

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Benton has been married and divorced three times; he has no children. His third wife lives in Falls Church.[6]

Works

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  • Benton, Nicholas (1970). Theology, the church and homosexual liberation. OCLC 44087262. Length: 8, [3] leaves.
  • Benton, Nicholas (1971). God and My Gay Soul. Berkeley, California: The Committee of Concern for Homosexuals. OCLC 27410982. An 11-page mimeographed pamphlet. Several sources ascribe this work to 1971, although Benton himself says he wrote it in 1970.
  • Benton, Nick (1971). Sexism, Racism and White Faggots in Sodomist Amerika. Berkeley, California: The Effeminist. ASIN B000727IEC. OCLC 25184403. Length: 15 pages.
  • Laurents, Arthur (1971). "Reminiscences of Arthur Laurents: oral history, 1971" (Interview). Hollywood film industry project. Interviewed by Nicholas Benton and Judith Green. OCLC 122598174. Transcript: 26 leaves. Tape: 1 cassette.
  • Benton, Nick (2013). Extraordinary Hearts: Reclaiming Gay Sensibility's Central Role in the Progress of Civilization. Lethe Press. ISBN 9781590213926. OCLC 853618574. Length: 344 pages.
  • Benton, Nick (2018). Gay Men in the Feminist Revolution. BCI Press.
  • Benton, Nick (2021). Education of a Gay Soul. BCI Press.

Notes

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  1. ^ "About Westmont". Westmont College. Retrieved 2015-03-26. Mission: Westmont College is an undergraduate, residential, Christian, liberal arts community serving God's kingdom by cultivating thoughtful scholars, grateful servants and faithful leaders for global engagement with the academy, church and world.
  2. ^ "Gay Sunshine". Berkeley, California: Gay Sunshine Collective. OCLC 7445902.[failed verification]
  3. ^ Shulman, Randy (May 7, 2011). "Nick Benton's Gay Science".
  4. ^ Benton, Nick (2013). Extraordinary Hearts: Reclaiming Gay Sensibility's Central Role in the Progress of Civilization. Lethe Press. ISBN 9781590213926. OCLC 853618574. Length: 344 pages.}}
  5. ^ Toporek, Bryan. "The Life and Times of Nicholas F. Benton". Georgetown Journalism. Georgetown University. Archived from the original on 2008-10-17.
  6. ^ Benton, Nicholas F. (2007-08-08). "Citizen Nick: Nicholas F. Benton's gay-friendly, progressive paper grows in Falls Church". Metro Weekly (Interview). Interviewed by Will O'Bryan. Washington, D.C. Retrieved 2015-03-27.

References

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