The document examines the representation and experiences of LGBTQ communities in media, highlighting historical perspectives and evolving dynamics around visibility and stereotypes. It addresses the impact of media portrayal on identity formation for sexual minorities and the significance of events like the Stonewall riots in shaping social discourse. The text also discusses the complexities of public perception, outings, and the role of journalism in addressing LGBTQ issues, particularly in the context of AIDS awareness and rights advocacy.

1. Constructing
GLBT (Q)
Experience
Aitza M. Haddad, J.D., LL.M.

2. OVERVIEW
• Neal, M. A. (2005). New black man. New York:
Routledge.
– Chapter 3 – Queers in a Barrel
• Gross, L. (2001). Up from invisibility: Lesbians, gay
men, and the media in America. Columbia
University Press.
– Chapter 1 – The Mediated Society
– Chapter 3 – Stonewall and Beyond
– Chapter 5 – Television Takes Over
– Chapter 7 – Journalism‟s Closet Open
– Chapter 8 –Breaking the Code of Silence
– Chapter 11 – Beyond Prime Time
– Chapter 13 – Old Stories and New Technologies

3. Neal, M. A. (2005). New black man. New York: Routledge.
QUEERS IN A BARREL

4. Where are the “Real men”?
• Were the “women‟s movements” what turned
males into gays?
– Collective fear of African-Americans
• Homosexuality will become pervasive in the
community.
– “Not Natural” (?)
• It‟s outing airing “dirty laundry”?
– Or there is a social need to know that
recognized or important people are or were
gay?
• How is the Black male intellectual and professional
endangering his status as Black and as male?
– How being a Black male feminist queers a
heterosexual Black male‟s identity?

5. • Acceptable black identities (?)
– Heterosexism ↔ Homophobia
• Hierarchy of sins
– Homosexuality worst or the worst
» Anti-Semitism v. Homophobia
• Classroom v. Barbershop (and other
institutions)
– Black male nurse (?)
• Two separate worlds?
– Being perceived as gay as dangerous as actually
being gay
• Living the Life – DL
– Subculture that provides spaces for Black gay
males to fully express their sexuality
• Demonization of Hip Hop
– Homie-sexuals

6. • Middle ground between racial and sexual
identity (?)
– Demonization of Black gay male for the raise of
HIV
• Responsibility of outing those who are spreading
it (?)
– Why these man chose the DL in the first place?
• Public debate about gay marriage
– Forum for Black ministers to expose their
concerns about homosexuality
• Truth of the Bible
– Are our homophobic views driven our reading of
the Bible, rather than the Bible shaping our
views?
• Silence surrounding homosexual attacks
– Love and Gunn – is violence justified?

7. Gross, L. (2001). Up from invisibility: Lesbians, gay men, and the
media in America. Columbia University Press.

8. Chapter 1 – The Mediated Society
• Today‟s Mass Media:
– Central and remote from their audiences
– Interconnected commercial enterprises in
the business of buying and selling products.
• Primary Product – audience (p.2)
• What happens when 3 of the 5 top selling
magazines in the country are owned by the same
company, which also owns major record
producing and book publishing companies, as
well as CNN and HBO, and that ended the
century merging with Internet service, AOL
(Time Warner)? (p.3)

9. • The corporations that create media fare also control how
particular social groups and issues are represented.
– Representation in the media is in itself a kind of power:
• Media invisibility helps maintain the powerlessness of groups
at the bottom of the social heap. (p.4)
• The images […] that do appear on the country‟s big and little
screens will be those that make sense to those who have
decision-making power. (p.5)
• The Fall 1999 lineup forecast 17 gay characters, about the
same as the number of African American, Asian, and
Latino characters combined.
– “There are gays on television because there are gays on
television.”
– “Unlike Latinos, Blacks, and Asian Americans, gay people
are fully integrated into the Hollywood power structure.”

10. • Television has become the key source of information
about the world - Mainstreaming
– What options and opportunities are available to those
groups whose concerns, values, and even the very existence
are belittled, subverted, and denied by the mainstream?
• Decisions about which events are newsworthy and about
how to present them, are guided by considerations of
dramatic for and content drawn from fiction.
– The amount devoted to a news story is not necessarily a
measure of importance on any objective scale, as opposed to
its ability to attack and maintain audiences.
– Most of us have components of our knowledge that derive
wholly or in part from fictional representations..
• Such as Jail, Murder Trials (OJ Simpson), Riots…
– Lacking other sources of information, most people will
accept even the most inaccurate or derogatory information
about a particular group or event.

11. Sexual Minorities and the Media
• Differ in many ways from the
“traditional” racial and ethnic
minorities;
– More like “fringe” political or religious groups.
• Being defined as controversial
invariably limits the ways lesbians and
gay men […] are depicted in the media
[…] when they do appear;
– What it means to be a woman?
– What it means to be a man?

12. • Sexual minorities are particularly vulnerable to the
internalization of mainstream values, given that the
process of self-identification generally occurs in
isolation and relatively late in life. (p.17)
– The process of identity formation and self-identification
for lesbian and gay people generally occurs in isolation
and relatively late in life and often requires the strength
and determination to swim against the cultural stream
one is immersed in at birth.
• Mass media biases and omissions are also balanced by the
audiences own experiences.
• Strategies of subversion – “Camp,” role playing and theatricality
• Richard Dyer
– “What we should be attacking is the attempt of
heterosexual society to define us for ourselves […] and to
pass this definition off as necessary and natural […] Our
gender invisibility makes us especially vulnerable to the
power of media images.”

13. Chapter 3: Stonewall and Beyond
• Stonewall Riots – Stonewall Bar, Greenwich
Village (June 28, 1969)
• Importance of taking social conflict “outside.”
– Media unaware of its historic significance.
• New York Times – realized that this was a novel
event; but buried the news in page 33 and told
from the police‟s perspective.
• The New York Daily – waited until July 6 to
cover the story, which was treated with heavyhanded humor.
• The Village Voice – capture the significance of
the riots but with the use of depictive language,
such as “the forces of faggotry.”

14. • The Gay Liberation Front (GLF)
– September 12, 1969 – GLF meeting with the
Voice publisher, who agreed to allowed the
use of “gay” and “homosexual” in ads.
• The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA)
– September 1970 – GAA occupation of
Harper‟s Magazine Offices.
• Joseph Epstein‟s cover essay, “Homo/hetero:
The Struggle for Sexual Identity.”
• The National Gay Task Force (NGTF)
– Marcus Welby, M.D. – “The Outrage”
• Familiar but false linkage of gay men with child
molestation
• APA condemn the program – didn‟t stop
– Gay changed by Pedophile

15. • If the activists were to succeed, they have to encourage
positive images and not simply fight against negative
stereotypes.
• “Gay Power, Gay Politics” (April 26, 1980) – CBS
Reports about San Francisco
– Two categories of mostly white men:
• The smoothly dangerous elite backstage power brokers
• The menacing, leather-clad, sex-obsessed street gays who
frightened children with unrestrained animal lust.
– Real Danger – people unable to compare the program with
first-hand knowledge of San Francisco
• By concentrating in certain flamboyant examples of
homosexual behavior, the program tended to reinforce
stereotypes.
• The Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force (PLGTF)
– Met with CBS affiliates to discuss the program
• Agreement of TV stations to run and produce Public Service
Announcements (PSAs).

16. Chapter 5: Television Takes Over
• “All in the Family” (February 1971)
– Episode “Judging Books by The Cover”
• That Certain Summer (1980 ABC made-for-TV
movie)
– Gay men touching and no gay character died at
the end
• 1980s “Special Interests”
– Nicholas Von Hoffman (11/4/76) – “new-style
Americans are having the Year of the Fag.”
• The Presentable Gay – Is a new stereotype being
born?
– Overly favorable attention or portrayals that
reinforce the prevailing images?

17. • Homosexuality […] becomes not a fact of life, but a
moral issue on which everyone in earshot is
expected to voice some vehement opinion.
– The problem of being defined by their “problem.”
– Standards of Good Taste – alternative gay (male)
world never seen nor mentioned.
•
•
•
•
Consenting Adult (1985) – TV Movie
Welcome Home, Bobby (1986) – TV Movie
Dynasty (1981-1989) – Prime time soap Opera
Brothers (1984) – Cable sit-com
• M*A*S*H (made-for-TV movie) v. Charlie's Angels (TV
hit) (October 1981)
– Success and ratings but canceled twice – Chris
Cagney
• Avalanche of letters and numerous Emmys saved the
program.

18. • 1990‟s Media Attention
– NBC „s L.A. Law (1991) – First lesbian kiss on
network TV .
– Picket Fences (1993) – Two high school girls
experiment by kissing each other.
– Roseanne (1988-1997) – “A woman cannot kiss a
woman.”
– Northern Exposure (1990-1995) – 1994 religious gay
men wedding.
– Melrose Place (1992-1990) – Good night gay men
kiss.
– Advocate (1994) – Why Can‟t This Man Get Laid?
– Serving in Silence (1995) – NBC movie with brief
lesbian kiss.
– Friends – Carol and Susan‟s wedding in 1996.

19. Chapter 6: Journalism’s Closet Opens
• Etiquette of “inning” – 1990‟s practices;
decorous inhibition of ones‟ private life.
– AIDS made it more difficult to maintain the
practice of homosexuality denial.
– Jeffrey Schmalz – “It is important that people
know that someone like this dies of AIDS.”
• One thing is burying and marrying is yet
another.
– 1990s commonplace for newspapers to include
“companion” among survivors listed.
– Chaos due to public notices of lesbian and gay
weddings.

20. • New York Times motto: “All the News That‟s Fit to
Print.”
– For a long time, gay issues were unfit.
– 1986 AIDS epidemic began to emerge.
• 1987 – Times Executive Director Max Frankel
authorized the used of “gay” as an adjective
meaning homosexual.
– 1989 – National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
(NGLTF) urged Gina Kolata to write a story about
the lesbian “baby boom” around the country.
• The article was changed before publishing.
– NGLTF, ACLU‟s Gay and Lesbian Rights Project, and
Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD)
protested and the editors admitted their fault.
– TIMES became a gay friendly location.

21. • Important coming outs of the 1990s:
– Jeffrey Schmalz – came out simultaneously as a Gay
with AIDS.
– Leroy Aarons – came out as a gay men in an American
Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) meeting.
• His speech sowed the seeds of what soon became the
National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association.
– Steve Gendel – first gay newsman to come out in
national television; CNBC‟s Real Personal.
– Garret Glaser – entertainment reporter at KNBV-TV
Los Angeles who wanted to come out in air but was
told by the station to do it in February or May because
of ratings. It finally did it in December 1994.
– David Brudnoy – popular right wing radio talk show
personality . Came out in 1994 after collapsing in the
air for AIDS-related pneumonia.

22. Chapter 8: Breaking the Code of Silence
• Outing
– Practice of publicly identifying secretly gay
public officials.
– Long favorable tactic used as a form of social
control by the enemies of gays.
– Inning – Line of discretion drawn by the media.
• AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP)
– Outrageous media-attracting tactics for AIDS
– Importance of gossip in the crafting of gay
subcultural identity.
• Obligation to the community? Right to know?
• Matter of privacy? Right to be left alone?

23. • Michelangelo Signorile – Gossip Watch
– List of names of gay and lesbian celebrities
– Attack media for failing to pay enough
attention to AIDS
– The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes
• The debate about outing intensified.
• Charles Greeley v. Pete Williams
– Thomas Stoddard – only example in which outing
has advanced the interest of gay people.
– Michael McWilliams – some cause-and-effect should
be established between a gay person doing his or her
job and doing damage to other gay people.
• Donna Brazile – first Black woman directing a
Presidential campaign.
– Sexual orientation? Unknown

24. Chapter 11: Beyond Prime Time
• Importance of talk-shows and daytime television.
– The Phil Donahue Show
• Arrival on TV coincided with the Gay and Lesbian Revolution
• Offered women, other minorities, a place at the media table
– The Jerry Springer Show
• Moved from issues to relationships.
• Overbooked guests and frequently added gay, lesbian and
bisexuals.
– Opportunity to reach people who might never otherwise
encounter a gay or transgendered person speaking about their
lives.
– Jenny Jones “Secret Crush”
• 1994 – Two men and a woman… You go Girl!
• 1995 – Jonathan Schmitz killed Scott Amedure
– Ratings took precedent over moralism.

25. • Public Broadcasting System (PBS) – What is public
about public television? In 1988:
– Independent Television Service (ITVS)
– Point of View (P.O.V.)
• Tongues Untied – US in the middle of cultural war
– No direct funding of National Endowment of Arts (NEA)
• Scenes used in 1992 –President Bush produced with tax money
• P.B.S. and P.O.V. cancelations:
– 1989 –Stop the Church by ACT UP – demonstration
protesting catholic church‟s positions of AIDS.
– 1997 – Out of Work – workplace discrimination through
the experiences of three lesbian and gay workers.
• 1994 PBS‟ American Playhouse series, Tales of the City
– Attacked and canceled – PBS don‟t want to coproduce
– Showtime replaced PBS – More Tales of the City
• 1995 ITVS‟s The Question of Equality – well received

26. • Music and the 1970s :
– Decade of emerging erotized male culture
• Pseudo-gay Glam Rock – David Bowie
• 1977 – Saturday Night Fever
• From Studio 54 to “Disco Sucks!”
– Alix Dobkin
• Michigan Womyn‟s Music Festival
• MTV and the 1980s:
–
–
–
–
Michael Jackson – broke the color barrier
Eminem v. Nirvana
Sir Elton John & Sir Ian McKellen
Madonna & Prince
• The New Millennium; The 2000s:
– From Melissa Etheridge to Sinéad O‟Connor
– From RuPaul to Ricky Martin

27. • Sports in America – compared to military.
– Very big business and central component of
journalism.
– Double standard on gays and lesbians coming
out.
• The David Kopay Story
– Behind The Mask: My Double Life in Baseball
• Billie Jean King‟s galimony suit
– Muffin Spencer-Blevin
– Double standard of being straight and being gay
• U.S. women‟s soccer team – wives and mothers
– Brandi Chastain – Nike sports bra
• Reggie White‟s homophobic ranting supported by NFL
• John Rocker from Atlanta Braves
– Offended so many groups (immigrants, gay people, and
minorities) that had to apologize (?)

28. Chapter 13: Old Stories and New
Technologies
• Importance of pornography to gay and lesbian sexual
expression – vehicle of sexist ideology – free speech
– Grecian Guild Pictorial
• 1940s and 1950s “physique culture” of gay men.
– Rare venue for the cohesion of gay identity and the
sense of community.
• The fight to keep sexuality invisible
– Gay and lesbian sexuality undermines the
unquestioned normalcy of the status quo (?)
– Opens up the possibility of making choices that people
might never have otherwise considered.
• Obscenity dilemma
– Deprave and corrupt minds (?)
– Sexual revolution of the 1960‟s and the VCR
• Symbolic violence of women in media – rape

29. New Media
• New media – opportunity for the formation of new
communities
– Internet – Individual engagement
• Unspoken secret – Gay and Lesbian Cyber-world
• Lack of media ownership – Internet makes them equal
• Dangers of deceptive and sometimes truthful selfrepresentations
• Exxon‟s Communication Decency Act 0f 1996 (CDA)
– Protection of children v. Free Speech (?)
– Modified in 1998 – Child Online Protection Act(COPA)
• Gay and lesbians harmful to children (?)
• Credit card information – economic hardship
• Internet School Filtering Act – censorship by passing
omission (?)

30. QUESTIONS?