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IF JIM THOMAS, the 38-year-old editor of the gay News-Telegraph, were any more self-effacing, he'd be wallpaper. Beige.
With prodding, however, he'll allow himself a small, shy smile at having recently won a $25,000 Stonewall Award for his contributions to the gay and lesbian community.
The award was one of four given annually by the Anderson Prize Foundation, endowed by Paul A. Anderson, a futures trader in Chicago who died of AIDS in 1992.
Thomas founded the biweekly News-Telegraph in 1981, and for the first 10 years drew no salary. As its managing editor, he now makes about $15,000 a year. The 44-page tabloid reaches 40,000 readers in Missouri, Kansas, Northern Arkansas and Southern Illinois. The paper combines news about political developments of special interest to gays with cultural reviews, commentary pieces and listings of gay-oriented events.
Also in 1981, Thomas also was a founder of the local Gay Pride celebration in Forest Park.
What Thomas is most proud of, however, is what he calls "building community."
"The most important thing in everything I do is creating a civic and civil life for gays and lesbians, and for the larger community," Thomas said. "My conscience and my ethics wouldn't allow me to do it if I thought it was harmful...