The April 14, 1997, issue of TIME featured a s-down wh the edian, who nfirmed that her s character was gay—and so was she.
Contents:
- HOW TIME’S REPORTG ON GAY LIFE AMERI SHAPED—AND SKEWED—A GENERATN’S ATTUS
- FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY
- READ THE 'YEP, I'M GAY' ELLEN DEGENER INTERVIEW FROM 1997
- FLORIDA JT PASSED THE "DON'T SAY GAY" BILL. HERE’S WHAT IT MEANS FOR KIDS
- ARE GAY RELATNSHIPS DIFFERENT?
- THE BATTLE OVER GAY TEENS
- NEWSWEEK VER: OBAMA ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’
- WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
HOW TIME’S REPORTG ON GAY LIFE AMERI SHAPED—AND SKEWED—A GENERATN’S ATTUS
T.J. of the Brothers Osborne is now the only openly gay artist signed to a major untry label—a historic moment for the genre. * time magazine gay *
In that spir, TIME is publishg this article by Eric Marc, thor of Makg Gay History. Over lunch one afternoon at our kchen table, wh the latt issue of TIME turned to an article about Ana Bryant’s succsful mpaign to repeal a gay-rights bill Da County, Fla., I raged over the jtice of both Bryant’s assertn that gay people were a danger to children and the wardly legislators who ved to prejudice and ignorance. Unknowgly, my red-faced outrage offered another clue to my mother that there was more than a ltle self-tert at stake for me the fate of the gay civil-rights movement.
FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY
* time magazine gay *
June 20, 1997 TIME article about Ana Bryant’s mpaign to repeal a gay-rights bill Da County, Fla. It wasn’t until more than a later, when I began rearchg an oral-history book on what was then lled the gay and lbian civil-rights movement, that I realized that TIME magaze had also played a role shapg how my mother thought of homosexuals — and how she’d e to view her teenaged gay son.
In my rearch, as I stggled to ga an unrstandg of why people saw homosexuals as sick, sful and crimal, I stumbled on a 1966 say TIME that jt about burned the sk off my face as I read .
READ THE 'YEP, I'M GAY' ELLEN DEGENER INTERVIEW FROM 1997
Why gay upl have more equaly and ls tensn at home--but still spl up more often than straight pairs" name="scriptn * time magazine gay *
I thk was meant as a medatn on what to make of the then-growg visibily of gay life Ameri. The media those years, as is most often the se today, reflected society’s prevailg views about homosexuals. Back then, homosexualy was still nsired a treatable mental illns, sexual relatns between two people of the same sex uld get you arrted almost every state, and thoands — perhaps tens of thoands — of gay men and lbians had been hound out of feral employment sce Print Eisenhower signed an executive orr 1953 banng them om ernment jobs.
In New York, a state law about “disorrly” nduct was terpreted as makg illegal to serve known homosexuals alhol, and the police routely raid gay bars. The now-celebrated 1969 Stonewall uprisg — triggered by a police raid of the Stonewall Inn gay bar — which is beg marked this month by 50th anniversary celebratns, march and protts, got a particularly pungent headle the New York Daily News: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. ” The Village Voice, an alternative downtown newspaper, published an article the immediate aftermath of the first night of rtg which the reporter ed a slur to refer to the uprisg’s participants, earng the Voice, jt days after the start of the uprisg, one of the first public protts that would e to characterize the newly ant era of “gay liberatn.
FLORIDA JT PASSED THE "DON'T SAY GAY" BILL. HERE’S WHAT IT MEANS FOR KIDS
What happens when you e out as a kid? How gay youths are challengg the right--and the left" name="scriptn * time magazine gay *
31, 1969, ver story was headled “The Homosexual: Newly Visible, Newly Unrstood. And yet the picture the article pated of the “newly unrstood” homosexual was still drippg wh sarsm and ntempt.
One sectn of the report noted several “typ” of homosexuals: “The Blatant Homosexual, ” “The Secret Lifer, ” “The Dperate, ” “The Adjted, ” “The Bisexual, ” “The Suatnal-Experimental.
” After scribg the different tegori, the wrer not: “The homosexual subculture, a semi-public world, is, whout qutn, shallow and unstable. ” Although that ver story also said some paratively nice thgs about homosexuals, is any wonr members of the newly formed Gay Liberatn Front and the Dghters of Bilis (an anizatn for lbians found 1955 San Francis) picketed the Time-Life buildg after s publitn?
ARE GAY RELATNSHIPS DIFFERENT?
It won't be nearly as ntroversial as Time magaze's breastfeedg ver, but Newsweek's May 21 issue clar Barack Obama the untry's "first gay print." The acpanyg ver story was wrten by Andrew Sullivan, the popular--and openly gay--polil blogger. The magaze even giv the manr--chief a rabow halo. Obama, Sullivan wr, "had to disver his black [...] * time magazine gay *
When I told my mother eight years later that y, I was gay, she jt looked at me wh a blank stare. In tth, I was a prsed gay teenager who feared that his life was ed bee of this one, immutable flaw.
” I’d e to unrstand om the rearch I’d done the Vassar College library that parents of gay children often felt that was their own flt (also thanks to TIME and all the other news outlets and so-lled experts who blamed homosexualy on a domant mother and passive father). Even before my mother asked me that fateful qutn, TIME had published a ver story on Leonard Matlovich, who was challengg the ban on gay people servg the ary. That and subsequent ver stori — the 1997 Ellen DeGener “Yep, I’m Gay” ver or the 2014 Laverne Cox ver about transgenr civil rights, for example — helped rhape a posive way how people like me thought of ourselv and how the rt of the world saw .
THE BATTLE OVER GAY TEENS
You may have seen the other ntroversial newsmagaze ver this week, the one where Newsweek dubbed Print Obama “The First Gay Print". But as Jim Loewen at the History News Network would like to remd , even if Obama were gay, he wouldn't be the first: more than 150 years before the... * time magazine gay *
Marc and his mother at the 1993 March on Washgton for Lbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberatn. My mother me around, too, and by the early 1990s was an activist her own right, volunteerg to lead a support group for gay men whose partners had died om AIDS and helpg found the Queens chapter of PFLAG (once known as Parents, Fai and Friends, of Lbians and Gays). Eric Marc is the thor of Makg Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lbian and Gay Equal Rights and the founr and host of a podst of the same name.
NEWSWEEK VER: OBAMA ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’
OUT f and articulat the ntributn of gay men and women to the culture through a provotive blend of fashn, pop culture, and journalism, spirg rears to nsir the ever-evolvg meang of gay. * time magazine gay *
Amid the flurry of rabow-lan rporate logos, sponsored events and news ems about gay pengus, is difficult to turn on a televisn or set foot public durg June whout the remr that ... Months after Sgapore crimalized nsensual gay sex, the cy-state’s clost thg to a Pri event highlights how far s LGBT muny has e—and how far still has to go.
Florida has opened an vtigatn to a teacher who showed her stunts a Disney film featurg a gay character durg class. “I’m very fortable beg gay, ” he says later, a quiet room at the office of his management pany.
WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
The Advote is the world's leadg source of LGBT news and polics. Disver the most recent articl published the prt issue, which is the olst and largt gay magaze the Uned Stat. Sort through The Advote prt issue archiv to fd articl wrten by the founrs of the morn-day LGBT rights movement like Vo Rso and Gore Vidal. Fd out about the historic magaze that was spired by a police raid of a Los Angel gay bar and has grown to bee a proment voice for topics related to the gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr muny and s alli. * time magazine gay *
Be the only openly gay artist signed to a major untry label—a historic moment for the genre. ” As Brothers Osborne’s reer grew, they ma gtur toward cln, startg wh the vio for sgle “Stay a Ltle Longer, ” which featured gay and terracial upl. Even amid lls for greater cln, the homogeney of the top artists the genre is still strikg.