Gay and Lesbian News Media

Edward Alwood

From their humble beginnings in the 1920s, the gay and lesbian press have played a critical role for the gay and lesbian community in a fashion similar to that performed by media for other minorities. They have provided a platform where gays could their share their common struggles, define themselves as a social minority, and identify their political and social goals. The earliest gay forays into journalism were short-lived. The Society for Human Rights in Chicago, the nation's first gay rights organization, launched Friendship and Freedom in 1924. The initial issue contained an article on “self-control,” a poem by gay journalist-poet Walt Whitman, and an essay concerning the gay playwright Oscar Wilde. They published only two issues before the wife of one of the founders became suspicious and called the police, who quickly shut down the organization and its newspaper. A lesbian in Los Angeles, using the pseudonym Lisa Ben, ...

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