Tracy Baim's GAY PRESS, GAY POWER Examines History of Gay Press and Contribution to Gay Rights

As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals became more visible in the 1950s and 1960s, the mainstream media perpetuated the attitude that they were mentally ill and morally depraved queers, freaks, degenerates, perverts, misfits, and even threats to national security. In many cities, the police raided gay bars, harassing and arresting patrons.

Community-based gay newsletters and newspapers emerged to counteract the distorted view of non-heterosexuals and to support the rising gay-rights movement. They addressed gay issues, formed a sense of unity, announced demonstrations, and tracked the progress of legal and political action.

Gay Press, Gay Power: The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America, edited and co-written by Tracy Baim, publisher of Chicago's gay publication Windy City Times, is a comprehensive overview of the past, present, and future of gay print media. Baim uses essays, interviews, and hundreds of news clips and images from both mainstream and early gay publications to describe the critical role of the gay press. Award-winning historian John D'Emilio provided the book's foreword.

Part One covers the history of discrimination against non-heterosexuals throughout the 20th century and the birth of gay and lesbian publications, including Friendship & Freedom, Vice Versa, ONE, Mattachine Review, and The Ladder. Most of the publications during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s were produced on small budgets by gay societies or activists and volunteers. Many were short-lived, but others were catalysts for tolerance and acceptance. Gradually, the mainstream media became more supportive of gay rights.

Part Two is a series of essays by and about journalists who documented the gay movement, recounting their experiences and providing observations and insights.

Part Three features the history of 10 gay publications in 10 major cities as told by their publishers, editors or reporters. Each one represents the challenges, risks, and struggles to survive that were common among almost all gay periodicals.

Part Four focuses on the business of gay publications. Initially, funding came from subscribers and classified ads since advertisers were reluctant to buy display ads-until they realized the growing gay population was a potentially profitable untapped market. Many major brands, retail stores, restaurant chains and service providers began targeting the gay community through its publications and even in some mainstream magazines.

Part Five reflects on the contribution of the gay press, yet debates its value as a source of news and advocacy in the era of the Internet, social media, and the economics of print media.

Gay Press, Gay Power:
The Growth of LGBT Community Newspapers in America
Prairie Avenue Productions and Windy City Media Group
468 pages, 485 illustrations
Black & White, ISBN 1480080527, $25
https://www.createspace.com/4022184 or http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Press-Power-Community-Newspapers/dp/1480080527
Color, ISBN: 1481047213, $89
https://www.createspace.com/4064472 or http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Press-Power-Community-Newspapers/dp/1481047213

In Chicago, it is also available at Women & Children First Bookstore.

Tracy Baim is publisher and executive editor at Windy City Media Group, which produces Windy City Times, Nightspots, and other gay media in Chicago. She co-founded Windy City Times in 1985 and Outlines newspaper in 1987. She has won numerous gay community and journalism honors, including the Community Media Workshop's Studs Terkel Award. For more info, visit www.windycitymediagroup.com.

Baim is the author of Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage (2010, Prairie Avenue Productions). She is also the co-author and editor of Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community (2008, Agate), the first comprehensive book on Chicago's gay history (see www.ChicagoGayHistory.org); and author of Where the World Meets, a book about Gay Games VII in Chicago (2007, www.Lulu.com).

Her most recent books include a novel, The Half Life of Sgt. Jen Hunter (2010, Prairie Avenue Productions), and the biographies Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow and Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria (both 2011, written with Owen Keehnen, and published by Prairie Avenue Productions).