Historically, newspapers and television news programs have been reluctant to say that a person is gay or lesbian, because they were afraid that someone labeled as homosexual could automatically sue for libel or slander. In 1994, however, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, in Donovan v. Fiumara, 114 N.C. App. 524, 442 S.E.2d 572 (1994), made such lawsuits quite difficult to win. The Court recognized that gay men and lesbians have made remarkable progress in recent years overcoming the former stigma attached to homosexuality. Accordingly, the Court decided that someone can sue for being called homosexual only if he or she can prove "special and actual damages" and that such damages will not be presumed as a matter of law. "[A]s North Carolina progresses through the mid 1990's," wrote Judge John for the Court of Appeals, "we are unable to rule the bare allegation that an individual is 'gay' or 'bisexual' constitutes today an accusation which, as a matter of law and absent any 'extrinsic, explanatory facts' . . . per se holds that individual up to 'disgrace, ridicule or contempt.'" (Citations omitted).