The Salt Lake Metro was a free gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 and lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 bi-weekly newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 published in Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

. It was published by Metro Publishing, Inc. owned by Michael Aaron and Steven Peterson. Michael Aaron was the publisher of the newspaper.

History

The newspaper began publishing in April 2004 as Utah state constitutional amendment 3 was beginning to heat up and longtime Salt Lake City activist Michael Aaron felt it was important to give the gay and lesbian community of Utah up-to-date news and commentary. Its focus on hard news and professional editorial content was intended to distinguish it from an existing gay and lesbian tabloid in the Salt Lake City market: The Pillar

The Pillar

The Pillar was an LGBT publication in Salt Lake City, Utah. Published monthly, the magazine was published from 1993 to October, 2007. It was predated by other gay and lesbian publications, but was one of the longest-lasting continuously-published gay publications in Utah....

 primarily featured publicity pieces, press releases and columns by amateur writers and local community leaders.

Aaron joined with Steven Peterson, owner of Little Lavender Book, a Utah gay and lesbian directory. Aaron had previously published Triangle Magazine and Gay Community News in the 1980s.

News was published also on the newspaper's website and is archived and searchable.

In February 2006, Aaron left in a dispute with Peterson and started a competing newspaper called QSaltLake

QSaltLake

QSaltLake is a gay and lesbian news and entertainment magazine printed biweekly in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. It contains local, national and world news, an extensive opinion section, arts and entertainment, a bar guide and classifieds...

, taking all writers and office staff with him.

Salt Lake Metro published its last issue in June 2006.

Editors

• Brandon Burt, April 2004–October 2004
• Jere Keys, October 2004–September 2005
• Michael Aaron, October 2005–February 2006
• Tony Hobday, March 2006
• Kenni Littlefield, March 2006–June 2006

Features

The Metro featured news, opinion—both serious and camp, arts and entertainment and sports. Cover stories ranged from the use of methamphetamine in the gay community to an interview with RuPaul

RuPaul

RuPaul Andre Charles , best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta...

.

In April 2005, the Metro started the "Metro Cares Foundation", a nonprofit organization to help support gay and lesbian groups in the state of Utah.