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LGBTQ media orqueer media is media created byLGBTQ individuals or groups or for which the primarytarget audience is LGBTQ people. LGBTQ representation in popular media can influence the self-perceptions of LGBTQ people, especially youth.
The first gay journal in the world,Der Eigene, was published inBerlin beginning in 1896. However, for the most part, LGBTQ media emerged in the 20th century, with creators tending towards self-published media due to restrictions and censorship in corporate media. Radio, magazines, newspapers,zines, andpublic-access television are some such avenues that LGBTQ creators and activists have used. With the rise of the internet, LGBTQ media has also found a home online, withpodcasts andinternet radio being accessible to a larger audience than traditional print or broadcast media.
LGBTQ media is used for a variety of purposes, including to share news or educational material, for entertainment, and for self-expression.
Some LGBTQ media is created byoutLGBTQ individuals or groups of out LGBTQ people.[1] LGBTQ creators do not always include LGBTQ themes or issues in the media that they produce, but there are often at least subtle references to queerness in these media.[1] LGBTQ media may also be defined by its intended target audience; under this definition, LGBTQ media is created for a primary target audience isLGBTQ people.[2][3] LGBTQ+ allies are a secondary target audience, and in some instances, as a form of activism, LGBTQ media may also target an audience of people who oppose gay rights.[2]
There have been both positive and negative representations of gay people across popular media, including film, television, literature, press, etc.[4]
LGBTQ representation in the media is powerful, particularly for youth.[5] There have been studies that have shown that media can have an influence on LGBTQ+ people'sself-realization,coming out, and current identities.[6]
Namibian LGBTQ organizationThe Rainbow Project has broadcast the radio showTalking Pink in the country since 1999.[7][8]
In 2018,Shams Rad was founded in the country's capital,Tunis; the station is the self-proclaimed "only gay radio station" in theArab world. The station airs music and programs discussing LGBTQ issues, but presenters do not "identify themselves as sexually active on air" due to laws in Tunisia thatcriminalize homosexuality. The station is partially funded by theDutch embassy.[9] Station director Bouhdid Belhedi has reported receiving death threats for his part in the station.[9]
By 2007,In the Pink was broadcast onBush Radio inCape Town, being the country's "only gay radio program".[10] As of 2016, GaySAradio, based inPretoria, was the country's only LGBTQ radio station.[11]
Les+ Magazine, a magazine aimed at queer women, was founded in Beijing in 2005.
India's first LGBTQ magazines appeared in the 1990s, withBombay Dost in 1990[12][13] andPravartak in 1991.[14] Prominent zines in the 1990s and 2000s also includedGaysi Zine andScripts.[13]
In July 2017, India's self-proclaimed "first LGBTQ radio show", titledGaydio, launched. The show was a two-hour weekly program, broadcast in Mumbai and two other cities.[15]
In October 2012,Radio Ranginkaman launched as a 30-minute program for the LGBTQ community.[16] Since then, it has grown into its own station, and broadcasts on shortwave, satellite and online radio.[16][17] It broadcasts in both Dari and Persian.
LGBTQ periodicals began being published in European countries in the 1970s, and have been published in a number of countries, including Hungary (Mások, 1991) Ireland (Gay Community News, 1988), the Netherlands (Gay Krant, 1980), Romania (Switch, 2005) and Sweden (QX, 1995).
Radio Rosa launched in Copenhagen on June 22, 1983, with the backing of theDanish National Association of Gays and Lesbians. The station closed in 2010.
France began seeing LGBTQ magazines in the late 1970s, withGai pied in 1979. The 1980s saw further publications, includingGaie France (1986) andIllico (1988).
Clandestine radio broadcasts by lesbians occurred as early as 1978, by the group Les Radioteuses, who were shut down following their first broadcast. The group reorganized as Radio Nanas, and legally in 1981 as Les Nanas Radioteuses.[18]
The early 1980s saw a number of gay and lesbian radio programs in France as state control of radio officially ended.[18] The lesbian radio collective Femmes Entre Elles (Canal Gay Radio Savane,Rennes) produced multiple lesbian programs, as did the broadcasting collective Les Jardins de Selene (Amiens); other collectives also existed inMarseille and Paris.[18]
The Parisian free radio stationFréquence Gaie was launched in 1981; in 1982, it became the "world's first 24-hour gay radio program".[19][18] Originally aimed primarily at gay men, programs produced by and for lesbians began to increase under the leadership of station president Genevieve Pastre, elected in June 1982. In early 1983, the station was rated fourth in the city in a public opinion survey. Due to financial troubles, the station floundered, and its LGBTQ audience had largely left by 1985.[18]
By 1983, stations broadcasting gay and lesbian programming, called "antennes roses" (English: "Pink stations") existed in at least 27 French towns and cities; by 1984, there were between 36 and 50.[18] In 1984, the first International Meeting of Male and Female Hosts of Homosexual Broadcasts in France was held.[18]
The first gay journal in the world,Der Eigene, was published inBerlin beginning in 1896 byAdolf Brand. A number of LGBTQ periodicals were published inWeimar Germany, includingDie Insel (1926) andDas 3. Geschlecht (1930), which is thought to be the firsttransvestite magazine in history. Weimar Germany was also home to multiple lesbian periodicals, includingDie Freundin (1924),Frauenliebe (1926) andDie BIF (mid to late 1920s). These publications had ceased by 1933, with the rise of the Nazi party to power.
In the second half of the 20th century, a major LGBTQ periodical in Germany isSiegessäule, which was established in 1984.
In August 1985, the twice-weekly LGBTQ programEldoradio began airing on theBerlin Cable Network. Named afterEldorado, a gay bar in Berlin during the 1920s, the two-hour program had "music, jokes, and self-produced radio plays" during the Sunday time slot, with Wednesday's program focusing on news and reporting. By the end of the year, Eldoradio had joined Radio 100, a "consort of alternative media groups" from Berlin. The show ended in 1989, due to financial troubles, including lack of advertisers.[20]
Malta has aDAB station which broadcastsGlitterBeam, an LGBTQ station based in the United Kingdom.
In Portugal, lesbian feminist activists published the zinesOrgana (1990–1992) andLilás (1993–2002). In addition to original content, these publications also carried translations of works "by lesbian feminist authors from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and France".[21]
In Spain, LGBTQ activists began publishing literature of their own in the late 1970s.[22]
In 1991,Madrid-based gay activist groupLa Radical Gai (LRG) began publishingDe un Plumazo, azine which had six total issues and two dossiers, with its final issue in 1996. The group's 1993 issue was titledQueerzine.; it is thought that this was the first usage of "queer" in a Spanish context. Topics covered included HIV/AIDS, politics, art, and literature.[23]
Lesbian activist groupLesbianas Sin Duda (LSD) contributed to some articles inQueerzine, but stated their own zine,Non-Grata, in 1994; this publication had four issues in total. Topic covered included lesbian visibility, HIV/AIDS, art, and Spanish translations of queer theory articles by English-language writers.[23]
In the United Kingdom, the 1960, 1970s, and 1980s saw a number of LGBTQ magazines and newspapers established, includingArena Three (1964-1971),Gay News (1972-1983),Capital Gay (1981-1995) andPink Paper (1987-2009). In the 21st century, the U.K. is home to online newspaperPinkNews.
In 1982, the community radio programGaywaves began broadcast on apirate station Our Radio in London. The two-hour program aired weekly on Wednesday nights. Although the show tried to include some lesbian programming, the program was mostly listened to by gay men, with programming shifting to reflect that. Segments included interviews, news, and skits. Program organizers also tried to incorporate material on the lives of gay men and lesbians outside the U.K.[19]
By the 1990s, the BBC hosted five gay and lesbian radio shows:A Sunday Outing,[24]Gay and Lesbian London,Gaytalk,[25]Loud'n'proud, andOut This Week.
The Middle East has seen its first LGBTQ periodicals in the 21st century, includingMy.Kali, founded in 2007, andEl Shad, created in 2014.
The Za'faraan Collective, which focuses on the experiences of LGBTQ migrants in the Middle East, began publishing a digital zine in 2019.[26]
Beginning in 1987, Canadian lesbian cartoonistNoreen Stevens illustrated the comic stripThe Chosen Family, which featured LGBTQ characters and was based on Stevens' own experiences.
A number of LGBTQ-related periodicals have been published in Canada, in both English and French-speaking communities.Les Mouches fantastiques, the earliest known gay or lesbian periodical on the continent, was published in Montreal from 1918 to 1920. Early Canadian periodicals in thegay rights movement includedGay (1964),TWO (1964),The Body Politic (1971),FILE Megazine (1972),Amazones d'Hier, Lesbiennes d'Aujourd'hui (1982),Perceptions (1983),Wayves (1983),Fugues (1984), andRites (1984). One of the first queer zines,J.D.s, was published byG.B Jones andBruce LaBruce from 1985 until 1991.
In 2012, LGBTQ literary magazinePlenitude was launched in Canada.
In Canada, the rise of LGBTQ radio programs occurred alongside the expansion of community radio, with the first community radio stations launching in 1974.[27] 482
On August 9, 1978,Gay News and Views made its debut onCKMS-FM, a community radio station run by the University of Waterloo. The program, the "first regularly scheduled gay radio program in Canada", was produced by the Kitchener-Waterloo Gay Media Collective. In September 1978, Vancouver saw its first gay radio program withComing Out, broadcast on Vancouver Co-operative Radio (CFRO-FM). In June 1979, theLesbian Show debuted on CFRO-FM, becoming the country's first lesbian radio program.[28] According to a co-founder of the Lesbian Show, Silva Tenenbein, the show grew out of tensions within the "male-dominated"Coming Out program and larger tensions within the Canadian feminist community.[27]
By the mid-1990s,CITR-FM in Vancouver was broadcasting the programQueer FM.[27]
In April 2007,Proud FM was launched in Toronto, becoming the country's "first mainstream, commercial station" for an LGBTQ audience.[29]
The early 1970s saw the publication of texts by lesbian feminists, such asDel Martin and Phyllis Lyon'sLesbian/Woman in 1972 andJill Johnston'sLesbian Nation in 1973.
In 1977, American gay authorsCharles Silverstein andEdmund White released the sex manualThe Joy of Gay Sex. In 1982, theSisters of Perpetual Indulgence publishedPlay Fair!, a brochure about safe sex for gay men.
In 1981, the lesbian feministS/M organisationSamois, based in San Francisco, published the anthologyComing to Power. The work combined short stories with advice.
Beginning in 1983, American lesbian cartoonistAlison Bechdel illustratedDykes to Watch Out For, a comic strip revolving around a primarily lesbian cast. In 1989, gay cartoonistEric Orner launchedThe Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green, a comic strip featuring a gay male protagonist.
TheMotion Picture Production Code, an industry guideline in whichHollywood's motion picture producers agreed to self-censor all major motion pictures from 1934 to 1968,[30] led to LGBTQ invisibility in film in United States film. However, even in the 1960s and 1970s, when LGBTQ representation in film was becoming more commonplace, it was also becoming morehomophobic. Gay characters in this time period were represented very negatively, whether that meant they were dangerous and suicidal, or predatory and violent. Examples of such movies includeThe Children's Hour,The Boys in the Band,Midnight Express, andVanishing Point.[1]
In 1977, American directorArthur J. Bressan Jr. releasedGay USA, thought to be the first documentary by and about LGBTQ people.
In the 1990s, films that included LGBTQ themes, such asThe Birdcage,Philadelphia,To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything,Flawless andIn & Out were quite popular.[citation needed] 2005,Brokeback Mountain grossed over $178 million[31] and in 2017,Moonlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture along with Actor in a Supporting Role and Adapted Screenplay.[32]
The gay man and heterosexual woman couple has become a popular film genre in recent years. This coupling exists in popular films such asMy Best Friend's Wedding,The Object of My Affection, andThe Next Best Thing. According to Helene Shugart, writing inCritical Studies in Media Communication, homosexuality is recoded and modified in these films to approvesexism andheteronormativity.[33]
In 2016 Pride Flix, a film label, was founded by a group of filmmakers with the aim of promoting LGBTQ+ content. Although short-lived, the label released several films. By the early 2020s, they stopped releasing films and the label was quietly dissolved.[citation needed]
Prior to the beginning of the gay rights movement, some gay and lesbian magazines were published in the U.S.Vice Versa, published 1947 and 1948, is the earliest known lesbian periodical in the U.S. The first national distributed lesbian periodical wasThe Ladder, founded in 1956. Publications in the 1960s includedDrum (Philadelphia, 1964) andThe Advocate (Los Angeles, 1967). In 1966, midwest gay activistDrew Shafer foundedThe Phoenix: Midwest Homophile Voice, the first known LGBTQ magazine published in the Midwestern U.S., inKansas City, Missouri.[34]
The beginning of the gay rights movement, from 1969 through the 1970s, saw a number of LGBTQ newspapers established across the country. These includedCome Out! (New York City, 1969),TheGay Blade (Washington, D.C., 1969),Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco Bay Area, 1971),Fag Rag (Boston, 1971),Lavender Woman (Chicago, 1971),Chicago Gay Crusader (1973),Gay Community News (Boston, 1973), theSan Francisco Sentinel (1974),Philadelphia Gay News (1976),Gaysweek (New York City, 1977), andSan Francisco Bay Times (1978).
Lesbian Connection, founded in 1974,[35][36] is still in publication as of 2025 and is the longest-running periodical for lesbians in the United States.
In 1956,Pacifica Radio became the first known listener-sponsored non-commercial American radio network to allow openly LGBTQ individuals airtime.[37]
One of the nation's earliest LGBTQ radio programs wasLesbian Nation (1972-1973), an interview show created byMartha Shelley, a member of theDaughters of Bilitis and theGay Liberation Front.[38] In 1975, the LGBTQ interview programWilde 'n' Stein began broadcasting on Houston'sKPFT station.[39] InHartford, Connecticut,Gay Spirit Radio began airing in November 1980. The program includes interviews, news, and music segments.[40][41]
TheCode of Practices for Television Broadcasters indirectly prohibited positive homosexual representation from 1952 to 1983, preventing many queer actors in the television field from coming out and further preventing representation of the LGBTQ+ community in commercial television.[citation needed] However, many LGBTQ communities made use ofpublic-access television to broadcast self-created programs. These included variety shows likeThe Emerald City (1977-1979),[42]Gay Morning America (1984-1985) andCandied Camera (1990s), scripted programs, like soap operaSecret Passions, informational shows (Dyke TV,Gay USA) and interview programs likeThe Glennda and Brenda Show.[43] In the 1980s, LGBTQ public access programs spoke frankly about the HIV/AIDS crisis, sharing information and educating viewers on the disease.[43]
In 1997,Ellen became the first show to have a gay main character.[44] After this, there was an increase in shows that included recurring gay characters such asWill & Grace,Dawson's Creek,Spin City,ER,Buffy the Vampire Slayer,Nightline,Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,Queer as Folk,The Young and the Restless,Ugly Betty andGlee.
Reality TV shows have also frequently represented openly gay people, such as MTV'sThe Real World, CBS'sSurvivor andThe Amazing Race.[citation needed]
In recent years, there has been a notable increase in theportrayal of LGBTQ+ characters and storylines across a wide range of television genres.[45]
In 1978, the Gay Teachers and Students Group of Melbourne releasedYoung, Gay and Proud, a book aimed at teenagers exploring a gay identity.
On December 1, 1993,Joy Melbourne 90.7, a volunteer-run gay and lesbian station, began broadcasting inMelbourne. The station was the country's first LGBTQ radio station.[46][20]
In 1973, theSisters for Homophile Equality (SHE) inWellington, New Zealand foundedThe Circle, which continued to publish until 1986.
In the 1980s,Wellington Access Radio hosted multiple lesbian radio programs. The first of these wasLeave the Dishes in the Sink, a feminist program which included some lesbians. In 1984, several lesbians developed an hour-long program, which aired once a month as part of the Womanzone feminist radio collective. In October 1984, the Lesbian Community Radio Programme (LCRP) was established. The weekly show had a variety of content, including news, poetry, educational segments, and updates on local events.[47]
In Brazil, the zineChanacomchana, published between 1981 and 1987, aimed to organize feminists around lesbian issues.
Podcasts, as a form of media that can be independently published and easily accessible via internet, have been used by LGBTQ creators to avoid censorship or other restrictions posed by commercial radio.[48][49] LGBTQ podcasts cover a variety of genres, including the talk show or interview format (Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness), audio dramas (The Penumbra Podcast,Welcome to Night Vale), and educational series focused on LGBTQ culture or history (Making Gay History,Nancy).
Zines, a type of self-published written work, have been used by LGBTQ creators as a way to share information, fiction, or personal experiences related to LGBTQ identity. As they are self-published, zines allow creators to avoid censorship or other restrictions that publishing houses or authorities might put in place. For example, zines have been used to share health information and to criticize the healthcare system's treatment of LGBTQ people.[50][23] Spanish LGBTQ activists have used zines to sustain "oppositional mobilization".[22]
One notable LGBTQ zine is American writerMira Bellwether'sFucking Trans Women.
TheQueer Zine Archive Project inMilwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. is one archive dedicated to this type of LGBTQ media.
This article incorporates material from theCitizendium article "Gay media", which is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under theGFDL.
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