CONTENTS
Preface
1.
THE MEDIATED SOCIETY
Mass Media and American Society
Television as the Mainstream
Sexual Minorities and the Media
Subversion and Resistance
2.
COMING OUT AND COMING TOGETHER
The Homosexual in Midcentury America
Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Provoking Concern
The Voice Gets Louder
Coming Out in the Nation’s Living Rooms
3.
STONEWALL AND BEYOND
“Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Stinging Mad”
“Turning Their Condition into Politics”
Expressing Outrage
Talking Back to the Media
4.
AT THE MOVIES
“A Queer Feeling Every Time I Look at You”
“Show Me a Happy Homosexual and I’ll Show You a Gay Corpse”
Friedkin Delivers Gay Corpses
Getting the Word Out
Gay Films for Straight Audiences
Universal or Particular?
5.
TELEVISION TAKES OVER
New Medium, Old Message
No Sex, Please, We’re Queer
6.
AIDS AND THE MEDIA
Rumors of a “Gay Cancer”
Circling the Wagons
Natural Squeamishness
Media Activism in a Crisis
7.
JOURNALISM’S CLOSET OPENS
Burying and Marrying
All the News Not Fit to Print
The Gray Lady Goes Gay
Coming Out in the Newsroom
8.
BREAKING THE CODE OF SILENCE
Naming Names
Outing the Pentagon
Kinda Ask, Sorta Tell
9.
HOLLYWOOD UNDER PRESSURE
AIDS Victims and Villains
A Kinder, Gentler Hollywood
Queering the “Straight” Text
10.
HOLLYWOOD’S GAY NINETIES
“I feel pretty and witty and … Hey!”
Still Villainous After All These Years
Sad Young Men
Some of My Best Friends Are Celibate
11.
BEYOND PRIME TIME
Adam and Steve and Phil and Oprah
The Tongue-Tied Public Square
Getting Over the Rainbow
Locker-room Closets
12.
MORNING PAPERS, AFTERNOON SOAPS
Coming Out in the Comics
You’re the First Person I Have Ever Told
13.
OLD STORIES AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The Good Parts
Somewhere There’s a Place for Us
14.
A NICHE OF OUR OWN
Movement to Market
Are We Being Served?
15.
FACING THE FUTURE
Visibility and Its Discontents
Looking Backward
Sources
Bibliography
Index