As the ISU community and the greater Iowa community become increasingly diverse, the Iowa State Daily strives to broaden its coverage of diverse groups of people, both on our own campus and beyond.

Through these diverse voices and perspectives, the Daily attempts to educate its readers about issues that pertain to these groups and to actively dispel existing negative stereotypes.

The Daily works to dispel these stereotypes by fairly, completely and accurately portraying a subject, scene or event.

When we fail to uphold these standards, we admit we have erred, and take steps to ensure such mistakes do not happen again.

Questions of journalistic ethics and taste arose as the result of a photo that ran prominently in the Feb. 16 edition of the Daily.

The photo showed two gay men — Joseph Glazebrook, sophomore at Luther College, and Mike Stoor, freshman at Cornell College — kissing at a dance that took place during the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender and Ally College Conference held in the Memorial Union over the weekend.

We felt the photograph was newsworthy because it represented the unique environment that happened at the conference, an environment in which two gay men felt comfortable enough to kiss in the public setting of the Memorial Union.

The photo represented a change of attitude and acceptance that a few decades ago would not have likely been observed in Iowa.

However, we erred in running this particular photograph. Although the photo demonstrated a change of local attitudes and was aesthetically sound in terms of photojournalism standards, the photograph reinforced existing stereotypes about a minority group. These are the kinds of stereotypes the Daily actively works to dispel.

For this judgment error, we apologize to members of the bisexual, lesbian, gay, transgender and ally community and to anyone else who was offended by this photograph that portrayed the conference in a stereotypical light.

This photo did not fairly, completely, and accurately portray the conference that took place over the weekend.

It showed one scene from a dance, but it did not provide insight into the other 48 hours, 103 breakout sessions and 1,000 attendees who attended the nation’s largest college conference focusing on LGBT issues.

We fear some of our readers may have glanced at the photo and came to the conclusion the conference was nothing more than a “big, gay orgy” where people made out at a dance.

This was certainly not the case, and it is our hope none of our readers came to this horrific, inaccurate conclusion.

We erred in our coverage of this conference and admit that several important news decisions were made in haste, namely that we were not prepared for the appropriate level and depth of coverage we typically give events this huge.

Although we cannot take back running a stereotypical photo, we have apologized to the community and will actively work to educate ourselves about LGBT issues to ensure mistakes such as this do not happen again.

To ensure our future coverage has greater sensitivity and accuracy in regard to diverse groups of students, faculty and staff at Iowa State and beyond, we plan to work with Julia McGinley, president of the LGBTAA; Todd Herriott, coordinator for disability resources and co-adviser to the LGBTAA; Jeremy Hayes, coordinator for LGBT student services and co-adviser to the LGBTAA; and others.

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Nicole Paseka is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Onawa. She is the editor in chief of the Daily.

Eric Rowley is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Rockford, Ill. He is the photography editor of the Daily.

Lucas Grundmeier is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale. He is the managing editor of content and development of the Daily.

Ayrel Clark is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Johnston. She is the managing editor of visual and production of the Daily.

Leah McBride is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Knoxville. She is the news editor of the Daily.