Deb Price, first nationally syndicated columnist on gay life, dies at 62

Appearing in the Detroit News in 1992, Deb Price’s debut column ended with a question that spurred a flood of letters from readers and vaulted her to national attention: “So tell me, America, how do I introduce Joyce?”

Ms. Price, a 34-year-old editor who helped lead the News’s Washington bureau, was referring to Joyce Murdoch, “the woman I’ve lived with for six years.” “Partner” was not yet a standard term for gay coupledom, and she was struggling to find the right words to describe a person who, she noted, could be variously called her “girlfriend,” “significant other,” “longtime companion,” “life partner” or “lover.”