GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Culture

Abstract

Clink reviews GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Culture edited by Claude J. Summers.

RR 2013/218

GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Culture

General editor Claude J. Summers

GLBTQ.com

Chicago, IL

URL: www.glbtq.com

Last visited February 2013

Gratis

Keywords Electronic media, Encyclopedias, Homosexuals

Review DOI 10.1108/RR-03-2013-0055

Mainstream news outlets do not cover what is going on in many different communities, including the gay community. This website, GLBTQ is a way to get the pulse of what is going on for the 10 percent of us who identify as gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, transgender or questioning. Edited by Claude J. Summers, prolific author and emeritus professor at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, this one-stop shop for news of the gay community is a great starting place for people seeking to understand more about themselves, their friends, or the queer community.

GLBTQ can be navigated by tabs or searched through a readily available box on the home page. The home page starts with blog posts on current queer events, brief biographies and birthdays of those who have made a "significant contribution to or had a significant impact on GLBTQ culture or history". On the day I looked, there were a few paragraphs about Rosa Bonheur but sadly no images of her works. Blog posts included former President Clinton's repudiation of DOMA, kudos to the anti-homophobia in sports organization You Can Play Project, and a story about homophobia and boy scouts. Biographies of significant people or organizations are highlighted at the top; on the day I looked the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals was featured.

Navigation for more information is through tabs on the side: Arts, Literature, Social Sciences, Special Features and a Discussion board. Clicking on the arts tab takes the user to subcategories, including Architecture, Actors, Cartoonists, Dancers, Drag Performers, Opera, and the like. Where this web site deviates from traditional subject headings is seen in descriptors such as: Photography: Lesbian, Pre-Stonewall. This article the discusses first the complexity of discussing queer art (made by queers, of queers, with queer intentionality?) and then briefly considers some artists such as Margarethe Mather. This would provide enough information to get a researcher started. The Literature tab has several standard divisions, such as African-American, Asian-American and some international coverage but also has special headings as well, such as Camp, which takes the users to brief accounts of the works of Richard Howard and Mabel Maney. Library of Congress headings are more about camp counsellors than what camp denotes to the gay community. The Social Sciences tab has many standard social sciences type topics: Ageism, Politics, Prisons, etc., but also topics such as compulsory heterosexuality, gaybashing, homophobia, etc. The articles written are signed, cited, and have convenient citation information at the bottom. The Special Features tab takes the user to Spotlights or Points of View and can be sorted by date, subject, or popularity. The most popular on the day I looked were two features, one on gay actors, the other on lesbian actors, both surveys from the silent films to now, fully cited and linked out to the biographies of individuals discussed in the articles.

GLBTQ is a great starting place for information bites about the queer community. The experience is marred somewhat by the advertising, which, while gay-centered, is still intrusive. For libraries seeking to guide their users to more substantial research/reports about the issues confronted in these pages, it would be useful to also include a link to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (www.ngltf.org) which is 40 years old this year.