Mainstreaming Gays discusses a key transitional period linking the eras of legacy and streaming, analyzing how queer production and interaction that had earlier occurred outside the mainstream was transformed by multiple converging trends: the emergence of digital media, the rising influence of fan cultures, and increasing interest in LGBTQ content within commercial media. The U.S. networks Bravo and Logo broke new ground in the early 2000s and 2010s with their channel programming, as well as bringing in a new cohort of LGBTQ digital content creators, providing unprecedented opportunities for independent queer producers, and hosting distinctive spaces for queer interaction online centered on pop culture and politics rather than dating. These developments constituted the ground from which recent developments for LGBTQ content and queer sociality online have emerged. Mainstreaming Gays is critical reading for those interested in media production, fandom, subcultures, and LGBTQ digital media.

A lively memoir of LGBT activist Steve Endean—one of the most influential political strategists ever to lobby Washington DC! Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is the spirited and provocative memoir that blows the lid off the complex machinations of state and national politics. LGBT activist Steve Endean’s autobiographical chronicle, completed shortly before his death in 1993, tells insider stories that are sometimes rousing, other times infuriating, recounting the fight for lesbian and gay rights from the trenches of the Minnesota state capital to the Washington Beltway. Readers get a clear view of the political activism of building grassroots support systems, fundraising efforts, lobbying to rally support for bills, and the election/reelection of sympathetic political representatives. Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress dynamically recounts Endean’s activism and instrumental leadership of the LGBT movement from 1973 to just before his death in 1993. From being the first Executive Director of the Gay Rights National Lobby, founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and founder of the Speak Out mailgram campaigns for grassroots pressure on congresspersons on G/L rights issues, the author discusses with amusing anecdotes and self-effacing humor his strategies, victories, and failures as movement leader. This lively mix of the accomplishments in those crucial years and the “dos and don’ts” of political activism is peopled with well-known and lesser-known movers and shakers on the political landscape. Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress gives an inside look at the political process, discussing: the political roots of Steve Endean—from his activist beginnings in Minnesota his rise from state to national politics the basics of fundraising lobbying representatives the LGBT internal conflicts building grassroots support the hypocrisy and lack of courage inherent in politics protest activities From the book: “I began to ge a sense of what a challenge I had ahead when Mayo asked what brought me to DC. Exhausted from a long flight, coping with tons of luggage, and very nervous about such a big move, I mustered the energy to explain earnestly that I'd been hired to be the first director and lobbyist for the Gay Rights National Lobby. To my shock, this distinguished gentleman doubled up with laughter and, in his charming Southern drawl, told me the Gay Rights National Lobby was dead as a doornail. He went on to suggest if that is what really brought me to Washington, DC, I might not want to haul all those boxes upstairs and perhaps I should just pack up and catch a return flight to Minnesota. That was my welcome to Washington, DC. Cold, white Minnesota never looked so appealing.” Bringing Lesbian and Gay Rights Into the Mainstream: Twenty Years of Progress is stimulating, eye-opening reading for educators, students, activists in search of guidance in the political process, anyone interested in LGBT history and political history, and anyone who knew the late Steve Endean.

Making Out in the Mainstream is the first full-length study of LGBT media activism, revealing the daily struggle to reconcile economic and professional pressures with conflicting personal, organizational, and political priorities. Documenting the rise and evolution of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Vincent Doyle presents a nuanced perspective on the complexity, contradictions, and ambivalences of advancing social causes through popular media. Based on participant observation, in-depth interviews, and archival research carried out at GLAAD’s New York and Los Angeles offices from 2000 to 2001, Making Out in the Mainstream analyzes the GLAAD Media Awards and the organization’s responses to controversial public figures such as Dr Laura Schlessinger and Eminem, and programs such as Queer as Folk. Doyle argues that the earlier political strategy of coming out to the mainstream, intended to dismantle closeted life and create a mass movement, has been supplanted by the market-oriented "making out" in the mainstream, which privileges respectable images of homosexuality in the pursuit of political and economic gain. He shows how this emphasis on respectability clashes with the development of a diverse movement that campaigns for greater inclusion and he offers a sophisticated appeal for more complicated understandings of assimilation and anti-normalization. Painting a complex portrait of a prominent gay and lesbian organization during a period of rapid social change, Making Out in the Mainstream reveals not only the limitations of “mainstreaming,” but also its political possibilities.

Queer Cinema: Schoolgirls, Vampires, and Gay Cowboys illustrates queer cinematic aesthetics by highlighting key films that emerged at historical turning points throughout the twentieth century. Barbara Mennel traces the representation of gays and lesbians from the sexual liberation movements of the roaring 1920s in Berlin to the Stonewall Rebellion in New York City and the emergence of queer activism and film in the early 1990s. She explains early tropes of queerness, such as the boarding school or the vampire, and describes the development of camp from 1950s Hollywood to underground art of the late 1960s in New York City. Mennel concludes with an exploration of the contemporary mainstreaming of gay and lesbian films and global queer cinema. Queer Cinema: Schoolgirls, Vampires and Gay Cowboys not only offers an introduction to a gay and lesbian film history, but also contributes to an academic discussion about queer subversion of mainstream film.

`The creation of a new field of lesbian and gay studies over the past thirty years has been a fascinating project. This volume brings together key authors in the field in 26 major essays and provides a clear sense of just how much has been achieved. It is a guide to the state of the art, and invaluable for scholars throughout the world' - Ken Plummer, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex; and Editor of Sexualities `This book is unique in lesbian and gay studies. From politics to health, cyber-queers to queer families, the review essays in this volume cover all the important bases of GLB history and politics. The Introduction is a simple and accessible overview of the changing faces of theory and research over many decades. This book is bound to be an important resource in a burgeoning field' - Janice Irvine, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst `The Handbook of Gay and Lesbian Studies, assembled by two leading theorists of sexuality, makes available more than two dozen new cutting-edge essays in gay studies. Essential for social science scholars and students of gay/queer studies' - David F. Greenberg, Professor of Sociology, New York University With this benchmark work, lesbian and gay studies comes of age. Drawing from a rich team of global contributors and carefully structured to elucidate the core issues in the field, it constitutes an unparalleled resource for teaching, research and debate. The volume is organized into 4 sections: · History and Theory This covers the roots of lesbian and gay studies, the institutionalization of the subject in the Academy, the 'naturalness' of heterosexuality, science and sexuality, the comparative sociology of homosexualities and the heterosexual/homosexual division. · Identity and Community This examines the formation of gay and lesbian identities communities and movements, 'cyber-queer' research, sexuality and space, generational issues in lesbian and gay lifecycles and the subject of bisexuality · Institutions This investigates questions of the governance of sexualities, lesbian and gay health, sexualities and education, religion and homosexuality, homosexuality and the law, gay and lesbian workers, homosexuality and the family, and lesbian, gay and queer encounters with the media and popular culture · Politics This explores the formation of the gay and lesbian movements, impact of globalization, antigay and lesbian violence, nationalism and transnationalism in lesbian and gay studies and sexual citizenship. The result is an authoritative book that demarcates the field, stimulates critical discussion and provides lesbian and gay studies with an enriching focal reference point. It is, quite simply, a breakthrough work that will galvanize discussion and research for years to come.

The Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies surveys the field in some 470 entries on individuals (Adrienne Rich); arts and cultural studies (Dance); ethics, religion, and philosophical issues (Monastic Traditions); historical figures, periods, and ideas (Germany between the World Wars); language, literature, and communication (British Drama); law and politics (Child Custody); medicine and biological sciences (Health and Illness); and psychology, social sciences, and education (Kinsey Report).

This book examines the emerging and shifting issues in the field of gay tourism, how these relate to significant societal and technological changes and the implications of these changes for theory, policy and practice. It addresses the political and sociocultural discourses evident within gay tourism consumption and explores the conceptualisations of gay tourism within the contexts of tourist profiles and identities. While gay travel research has been dominated by Western perspectives and traditions, this book incorporates voices from non-Western perspectives and cultures. The volume investigates the value of gay tourism that facilitates our engagement with tourism experiences, leisure opportunities and pleasure. It will be a useful resource for students, lecturers and researchers in tourism, human geography, cultural studies and sociology.

This book offers an innovative rethinking of policy approaches to 'gender equality' and of the process of social change. It brings several new chapters together with a series of previously published articles to reflect on these topics. A particular focus is gender mainstreaming, a relatively recent development in equality policy in many industrialised and some industrialising countries, as well as in large international organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organization. The book draws upon poststructuralist organisation and policy theory to argue that it is impossible to 'script' reform initiatives such as gender mainstreaming. As an alternative it recommends thinking about such policy developments as fields of contestation, shaped by on-the-ground political deliberations and practices, including the discursive practices that produce specific ways of understanding the 'problem' of 'gender inequality'. In addition to the new chapters the editors Bacchi and Eveline produce brief introductions for each chapter, tracing the development of their ideas over four years. Through these commentaries the book provides exciting insights into the complex processes of collaboration and theory generation. Mainstreaming Politics is a rich resource for both practitioners in the field and for theorists. In particular it will appeal to those interested in public policy, public administration, organisation studies, sociology, comparative politics and international studies.

Known around the world as a bastion of Catholicism and machismo, Latin America has emerged in recent years as the undisputed gay rights leader of the Global South. Even more surprising is that several Latin American nations have surpassed many developed nations, including the United States, in legislating equality for the LGBT community. So how did this dramatic and unexpected expansion of gay rights come about? And why are Latin American nations diverging in their embrace of gay rights, a point highlighted by the paradoxical experiences of Argentina and Brazil? Argentina, a country with a dark history of repression of homosexuality, legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, a first for a Latin American nation; and since then it has enacted laws to ensure transgender equality, to abolish "ex-gay reparative therapy," and to provide reproductive assistance to same-sex couples. By contrast, Brazil, a country famous for celebrating sexual diversity, proved incapable of legalizing same-sex marriage via the legislature, leaving the job to the courts; and Brazilian anti-gay discrimination laws are among the weakest in Latin America. In Out in the Periphery, Omar G. Encarnación breaks away from the conventional narrative of Latin America's embrace of gay rights as a by-product of the global spread of gay rights from the developed West. Instead, Encarnación aims to "decenter" gay rights politics. His intention is not to demonstrate how the "local" has trumped the "global" in Latin America but rather to suggest how domestic and international politics interacted to make Latin America one of the world's most receptive environments for gay rights. Economic and political modernization, constitutional and judicial reforms, and the rise of socially liberal governments have all contributed to this receptivity. But the most decisive factor was the skill of local activists in crafting highly effective gay rights campaigns. Inspired by external events and trends, but firmly grounded in local politics and realities, these campaigns succeeded in bringing radical change to the law with respect to homosexuality and, in some cases, as in Argentina, in transforming society and the culture at large.

Out in the Periphery explores how Latin America, a region known for its Catholic heritage and machismo culture, came to embrace gay rights. At the heart of this analysis is the activism of Latin America's gay rights organizations, a long-neglected social movement even by students of Latin American social movements.