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For the Australian cricketer, see Nick Benton (cricketer).

Nicholas F. Benton
Born	(1944-02-09) February 9, 1944 Ross, California
Nationality	American
Other names	Nick Benton
Education	Westmont 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 for	Journalist, 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

Born in Ross, California, Benton earned a degree in English from Westmont College (a Christian college)) 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

Benton helped found the Berkeley Gay Liberation Front and wrote the first editorial for the newspaper Gay Sunshine. 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, The columns were then compiled into a book entitled, Extraordinary Hearts: Reclaiming Gay Sensibility's Central Role in the Progress of Civilization.

Lyndon LaRouche organization

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. 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

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

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

Works

• 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.

References

• Eisele, Al (2010-07-26). "A Very Good Week for a Small Town Newspaper Publisher". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-03-26..
• Bergholz, Richard. "Labor Party Candidate Seeks GOP Aid," Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1978.
• Elfman, Lois, "Community Voice," The Scene magazine, February 2006.
• Mecca, Tommi Avicolli, ed. (2009-06-01). Smash the Church, Smash the State!: The Early Years of Gay Liberation. San Francisco: City Lights Publishers. ISBN 978-0872864979..
• PR Newswire, "Falls Church News-Press Owner Nicholas F. Benton Donates $10,000 to Falls Church City Schools to Establish Ground-Breaking 'Diversity Affirmation Education Fund'," May 2, 2005.
• 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.
• Pearce, Katie, "Washington Blade Staffers Plan New Venture After Gay Weekly Folds," The Washington Current, Nov. 18, 2009.
• Metro Weekly, Oct. 14, 2010.
• Mansberger, Terry, "LGBT Democrats Earn a Seat at the Party," Falls Church News-Press, Dec. 30, 2010.
• Osborne, William (1986). "Democrats now take LaRouche seriously", San Diego Union, March 23, 1986.
• Toporek, Bryan. "The Life and Times of Nicholas F. Benton". Georgetown Journalism. Georgetown University. Archived from the original on 2008-10-17.

External links

• Personal website
• Biography
• Benton Communications, Inc.
• Appearances on C-SPAN