Jane Gross, First Times Writer to Publish the Words 'Anal Sex,' is Taking a Buyout [Updated]

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By John Koblin

April 11, 2008 | 7:22 a.m.

Jane Gross, a Times-lifer, is taking a buyout. And per her brother's blog (the writer Michael Gross), she's a pioneer! He writes:

She was the first woman reporter ever in an NBA locker room while she was at Newsday; broke the story of the existence of crack; was one of the earliest reporters on the AIDS beat, and in that capacity was the first person to use the term anal sex in the Times (now there’s something to be be proud of).

The last fact can't be confirmed through any sort of nytimes.com or nexis search (the oldest searches for "anal sex," which go back as far as 1983, don't show her byline but perhaps her piece came earlier), but anyway, we'll take his word for it! Oh, and she's proud of other really distinguished accomplishments, which she explains to Jim Romenesko.

UPDATE: Sadly, it turns out Ms. Gross wasn't the first writer to write the words "anal sex" in the paper of record. Michael Gross has now updated his post and said that that piece of news turned out to be "family legend." He writes: "As far back as 1973, the term was employed by Nora Sayre in an article called, amusingly enough, “Ahh!!” on the book The Joy of Sex. I don’t want to dig further back than that."