Historical Background
Origins of the LGBTQ+ Press in America
The history of the LGBTQ+ press in America is regarded as having begun in Los Angeles with the appearance of the nation’s first lesbian magazine Vice Versa, “America’s Gayest Magazine.” Created in 1947 by Lisa Ben, it contained no bylines, photographs, or advertisements, nor did it include the name or address of its editor. Due to the danger of publishing and circulating such a magazine—which was deemed vulgar and subversive simply because it discussed gay life and issues—its circulation was quite limited: to get a copy, you had to find someone who already had one, even Lisa Ben herself. LGBTQ+ print culture would evolve far beyond Vice Versa in organization, scope, and content. However, it did inspire later publications that shared its mission to support communication within LGBTQ+ communities, as well as its affirming tone, discussion of LGBTQ+ political issues, curation of LGBTQ+ materials and resources, and inclusion of forums for readers to submit their own materials.
The monthly LGBTQ+ publications of the 1950s were also based in the West Coast, including such ground-breaking periodicals as ONE (founded in 1953), Mattachine Review (1955), and The Ladder (1956). Despite being established on the West Coast, these publications reached a national audience, encouraging the beginnings of intranational gay and lesbian networks even as communities and the publications they created struggled under the shadow of McCarthyism. The 1950s also saw the beginning of an editorial element in LGBTQ+ publications, giving readers access to information about legal and moral issues that their communities faced.
Organizing for Change: Protest and Print Culture in the 1960s
The 1960s saw a shift toward political militancy within LGBTQ+ print culture as publications grew out of and in turn fueled political organization and activism for LGBTQ+ civil rights in America. Print culture flourished in the three main centers of an emerging counterculture: New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The gay press began to challenge social norms by including explicitly erotic content in their materials, as both an aesthetic visual component and a daring political statement. The omnipresence of words, phrases, and images that the mainstream culture rejected as patently offensive in the print culture of the 70s and later (as you’ll find in our archive) attests to the lasting influence of this movement. The national LGBTQ+ cultural consciousness that was engendered by and shaped LGBTQ+ print culture in the 1960s set the stage for the explosion of creativity and activism that followed the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
After Stonewall: Turning a Riot into a Revolution
This is where our archive picks up, as LGBTQ+ organizing and print culture reached a fever pitch in the wake of the Stonewall Riots while also expanding outside of the major centers of counter-cultural production to other regions such as the Midwest. Following the riots, Queer communities used print to voice outrage, demand justice, and to wage ideological warfare over what their ongoing social movement should be. Reflecting the tensions within their communities, print culture served as a stage for LGBTQ+ individuals to discuss such questions as whether to embrace radicalism; whether to use violence as a strategy for achieving equality; whether to demand anarchy; whether to integrate into the dominant culture, or to create a separate gay nation; and whether to fight their battles separately, or to band together despite experiencing different relationships to sexuality and gender. LGBTQ+ publications post-Stonewall covered everything from Queer literature and spirituality, to subcultures like leather and drag. Posters and flyers advertised LGBTQ+ spaces such as bars, bookshops, community centers, as well as various creative, social, and political groups. The 1970s was also an era of nationalizing the gay press, as some local publications went national or even global, and others were founded upon a mission to foster communication between LGBTQ+ communities across the nation.
In the 1980s, as the AIDS crisis ravaged the gay population—especially, though not exclusively, gay men—LGBTQ+ communities used print to organize and demand action from the U.S. government, to rally aid for their sick friends and loved ones, and to inform readers about the disease and dispell some of the sensational myths that the mainstream media was reporting at the time.
In the 1990s and beyond, some LGBTQ+ publications and issues entered mainstream print culture and were subsequently monetized on a greater scale than before. However, small groups and grassroots organizations continue to produce countercultural materials, sometimes in a similar fashion to the earliest LGBTQ+ publications: on living room floors, from scratch with scissors and glue. While many publications and other groups producing print materials over the decades have been short-lived, some, such as Lesbian Connection, continue to reach readers nationwide up to nearly half a century after their conception. You can learn more about LGBTQ+ print culture from 1969-2000 by exploring our archive.
Sources
This brief history paraphrased from Rodger Streitmatter's Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America (1995). For further reading on LGBTQ+ print culture in the U.S., please see the Bibliography page.