Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America

Abstract

[...]the book covers a tremendous amount of ground both in terms of period, genre, geography, audience, and more. Even the 468-page length understates this book's logistical challenge: margins are narrow, typefaces are smallish (especially small in the bibliography, index, and contributor biographies), photos are grouped; those who have tried to stuff as much content as possible into a small newspaper, newsletter, or magazine will recognize the method to the madness.

Bairn, Tracy. Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth ofLGBT Community Newspapers in America. Chicago: Prairie Avenue Productions/Windy City Media Group, 2012. 468 pp. $25.

Gay Press, Gay Power is the first major history of the United States lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) press since Rodger Streitmatters Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America in 1995. So immediately, scholars, journalists, activists, and others interested in the United States LGBTQ news media should be thankful for whatever contribution this book makes to the literature. Second, the book covers a tremendous amount of ground both in terms of period, genre, geography, audience, and more.

It is divided into five main sections. The first section contains one chapter on how the mainstream news media have covered LGBT issues. It is updated from, but merely an outline when compared with, Edward Alwood's Straight News: Gays, Lesbians and News Media. There's a four-chapter general history of the LGBTQ press, including one on only Chicago, 1965-85. Chapters 6 to 23 are about individual journalists, probably the two best known ones being Harry Hay and Rex Wockner. Chapters 24 to 33 are about individual "longtime" newspapers from Boston to Los Angeles. Chapters 34 to 35 are about advertising in the LGBTQ press. Chapters 36,37, and 38 ask important questions about the types and quantity of academic research on the LGBTQ press, researching LGBTQ versus mainstream news media, and "Do We Still Need Gay News Media?"

Unfortunately, all are short and superficial. Baim's conclusion chapter, "The Future of Queer Newspapers," is a relatively well-done finish. Her tone is optimistic even if facts suggest otherwise. It should be good: Baim is a top expert on that topic, having started in LGBTQ journalism in 1984 and now serving as publisher/executive editor at Windy City Media. It publishes the Windy City Times newspaper and other publications.

Even the 468-page length understates this book's logistical challenge: margins are narrow, typefaces are smallish (especially small in the bibliography, index, and contributor biographies), photos are grouped; those who have tried to stuff as much content as possible into a small newspaper, newsletter, or magazine will recognize the method to the madness. This book boasts at least fourteen contributors, plus two chapters written by newspapers' "staffls]"; again, those who have produced edited volumes also know the challenges of juggling too many authors with too many styles, timelines, personalities, and qualifications. No wonder Baim drafted William B. Kelley and Jorjet Harper to help her edit.

Trying to pack so much into one book, the chapters vary in what kind of story they tell. A few may leave the reader musing about the meaning of the raw information. Baim worked hard to give personality and context to the overall story as well as the stories of individual publications and individual journalists. She interviewed surviving journalists, included chapters about journalists written by themselves, and about a newspaper written by a longtime staff member. This has a lot of advantages when so many of historians' usual materials are not available on the LGBTQ press, and also some obvious disadvantages. Recollections decades later are usually general and happy, not to mention filtered through everything that has happened to that person, LGBTQ persons and institutions, journalism, and surviving publications, since 1963 or 1973 or 1983. And Baim is a major character in her own book, which probably is not incorrect on the merits, but fails any test of objectivity for both a journalist, which Baim is, and a historian which, fortunately, Baim doesn't claim to be.

Ultimately, the medium is the message: the book is 468 pages long because the history of the LGBTQ press in the United States is composed of hundreds of periodicals and thousands of individuals. One-time prominent LGBTQ publishers or editors whose names you might know, such as The New York Natives Charles Ortleb, are mentioned once or perhaps three times, and many valuable longtime local newspapers, such as Milwaukee's Wisconsin Light, are not mentioned at all. But it is only because there is so much else to say.