A half century ago gay men and lesbians were all but invisible in the media and, in turn, popular culture. With the lesbian and gay liberation movement came a profoundly new sense of homosexual community and empowerment and the emergence of gay people onto the media's stage. And yet even as the mass media have been shifting the terms of our public conversation toward a greater acknowledgment of diversity, does the emerging "visibility" of gay men and women do justice to the complexity and variety of their experience? Or is gay identity manipulated and contrived by media that are unwilling—and perhaps unable—to fully comprehend and honor it? While positive representations of gays and lesbians are a cautious step in the right direction, media expert Larry Gross argues that the entertainment and news media betray a lingering inability to break free from proscribed limitations in order to embrace the complex reality of gay identity. While noting major advances, like the opening of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore—the first gay bookstore in the country—or the rise of The Advocate from small newsletter to influential national paper, Gross takes the measure of somewhat more ambiguous milestones, like the first lesbian kiss on television or the first gay character in a newspaper comic strip.

From "Perverts" to "Fab Five" tracks the dramatic change in how the American media has depicted gay people. The media, Streitmatter argues, has not merely reflected the American public's shift to a more enlightened view of gay people, but they have been instrumental in propelling that change.

Roger A. Sneed offers an alternative approach to black homosexuality for black religious scholars who have traditionally viewed homosexuality as a problem. Instead, by drawing on a range of black gay writers, Representations of Homosexuality points black religious scholarship towards an ethics of openness.

“Tillie Walden is the future of comics, and On a Sunbeam is her best work yet. It’s a ‘space’ story unlike any you’ve ever read, with a rich, lived-in universe of complex characters.” —Brian K. Vaughan, Saga and Paper Girls Two timelines. Second chances. One love. A ragtag crew travels to the deepest reaches of space, rebuilding beautiful, broken structures to piece the past together. Two girls meet in boarding school and fall deeply in love—only to learn the pain of loss. With interwoven timelines and stunning art, award-winning graphic novelist Tillie Walden creates an inventive world, breathtaking romance, and an epic quest for love. LA Times Festival of Books 2018 Book Prize Winner, Graphic Novel/Comics A Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 2018 One of The Washington Post's "10 Best Graphic Novels of 2018" A School Library Journal Best Book of 2018 A YALSA Top Ten Great Graphic Novel A 2019 Hugo Award Nominee, Best Graphic Story A Harvey Award Nominee, Book of the Year A Harvey Award Nominee, Best Children's or Young Adult Book

Queer Media Images: LGBT Perspectives presents fifteen chapters that address how the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities are depicted in the media. This collection focuses on how the LGBT community has been silenced or given voice through the media. Through a study of queer media images, this book scrutinizes LGBT media representations and how these representations contribute to a dialogue about civil rights for this marginalized community. While the communication discipline has been open to the LGBT community, there has been an absence of published research and a marginalizing or tokenizing of the queer voice. Through a study of media representations, this unique collection provides a snapshot into the issues surrounding LGBT identity during a time when the Defense of Marriage Act is called into question and explores what it means to study images through a queer lens.

Outlaw Representation is a Beacon Press publication.

This monograph provides an overview of historical theories in gender differentiation and suggests several new methods designed to assess the gender-related attitudes toward others and the gender-related characterization of the self in both children and adults. Old theories are tested and critically assessed in terms of more current ideas about gender differentiation. Includes commentaries by Diane Ruble and Kim Powlishta.

As opposed to many of their more reserved predecessors, modern television serials such as Queer as Folk and The L Word, which concentrate predominantly on queer characters, dare to include numerous highly controversial story lines, feature explicit sex scenes and reflect upon previously tabooed aspects in their depiction of homosexuality. Challenging Heterosexism from the Other Point of View discusses how these specifically queer shows fulfill a function of challenging institutionalized attitudes of society, such as dichotomous notions of gender, heterosexism or homophobia. Moreover, the question is raised whether they also serve to do the opposite unintentionally, by reinforcing stereotypes and potentially creating a rather rigid image of the concept of homosexual identity. The complexity of the cultural impact suggested by these series defines the focal point of the qualitative content analysis of these innovative media products.

More than 100 articles, essays, letters, and primary documents cover the formation of gay identity; religious, scientific, medical and legal perspectives; the mainstream media; lesbian and gay media; and community prospects and tactics.