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The LGBT Imprint: Gay News Media Past, Present, And Future

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Recently, an article at Harvard’s Neiman Journalism Lab on the viability of gay news sites has prompted the LGBT news media industry to do some self-examination. Award-winning veteran journalist Karen Ocamb explores the rise of the LGBT media in the 80s and examines its mainstreaming — and how its future affects us all.

I’m not an advertising exec so I can’t speak to the “unique set of problems” that might exist for LGBT sales people and the companies, corporations and non-profits with which they must negotiate for revenue.

That said, I think the Neiman article, “How niche is too niche? The case of gay news blogs,” raises an important on-going issue: as the LGBT movement for civil rights matures, how “queer” do most LGBTs want to be? This is the old argument between sexual outlaws and assimilationists, between the identifiable “third sex” minority Harry Hay described in the 1950s and the more mainstream “we’re just like you, only gay” crowd.

Ironically, from my perspective, the LGBT community first caught the attention of marketers during the AIDS crisis. Gay magazines such as “Frontiers,” where I am now the news editor, flourished because of the sex ads in the back that allowed terrified gay people to “meet” each other over the phone. Alternative publications such as the LA Weekly at first decried these ads – and then mimicked them once they recognized the revenue the ads produced.

These were the precursors to the online “personals” that helped sites such as Gay.com become popular and appear to be extraordinary moneymakers.

Meanwhile, in 1991, presidential candidate Bill Clinton specifically reached out to gays and gays promised – and did raise early money for his campaign. Politicos took notice. AIDS Project Los Angeles had been bringing in huge stars like Elizabeth Taylor to their events when gay Hollywood decided to turn to civil rights, with entertainment attorney Alan Hergott and manger Barry Krost hosting an historic fundraiser for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Thanks to efforts by in-house attorney Elizabeth Birch, Apple Computers started offering domestic partnership benefits – starting a domino effect of in-house personnel policy changes among other Fortune 500 companies.

This prompted those companies to want to target the gay community as a niche and gay marketers used the trope of gays as loyal customers with disposable incomes to reach out to other companies like Volvo and Capital One with gay celebrity spokespeople like tennis pro Martina Navratilova. Even the publishing world – especially St. Martin’s Press – created a gay niche. It was all the rage.

But America changed in 2000, becoming more conservative with George W. Bush and the niche became unsustainable. There was great excitement when the online “star” PlanetOut became the first LGBT IPO on Wall Street only to crash and burn and became absorbed with great debt into the Here Networks.

Now we worry about the financial fate of anything LGBT specific. Frontiers magazine, founded in 1982, merged with IN LA magazine a while ago and is holding its own in Southern California. As with most publications, we have an online site that also has a blog where I post news stories, as do the other editors and writers. But I am exhausted working on major news features for the magazine and blogging for both Frontiers and my own personal blog, LGBT POV.

I would not be able to pay the rent if I only blogged at LGBT POV. I have Google AdSense – but frankly, the ads are whatever Google sends down the pike – including ads for Rand Paul’s tax plan. I have two friends who volunteer to help me and we’ve blocked some of the more atrocious ads. But for the most part, the ads only bring in “pennies.” Like other bloggers, I have seriously considered crashing LGBT POV because I am so frustrated at not having the time to do the kinds of pieces I want to do – which is why I started the blog – while also covering news and writing for my main job and blogging there, as well.  Let’s just say I carry a packet of Low Dose Aspirin wherever I go.

But I feel as if we’re at the beginning of another turning point. Look at the culture – people love Ellen, Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch, Glee and Modern Family. It’s as if the screwed up political world is emblematic of the farthest (let’s hope) the Farthest Right can go and people are getting fed up with hate. So whether we’re campy Freedom of Expression sexual outlaws or transgender dancers or the neighbors with a kid next door, we’re becoming more and more part of the culture and that gay “niche” advertising will be as unceremonious as having a woman doing a voice over or an African American in a TV ad. And that may mean that we see more mainstream advertising on LGBT blogs or LGBT blogs being smaller and self-financed or absorbed into something bigger or big ventures adding something LGBT as Huffington Post just did with Gay Voices which is way more cost-effective than the St. Martins Book experiment.

Either way, nothing will extinguish the LGBT imprint.

Karen Ocamb, who is both the news editor at Frontiers In LA, the largest LGBT publication in Southern California, and editor of her own site, LGBT | POV,  is an award-winning journalist with over 37 years of experience spanning print, broadcast and online media. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Advocate,The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. Ocamb has also served as news manager and producer at Gaywired.com; was LA news editor for the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times; and was a regular columnist for Genre magazine and contributor to the Bay Area Reporter. 

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News

‘Lame Duck’ Trump Loses Major Battle in Indiana: ‘Not Even Close to Being Close’

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President Donald Trump’s efforts to compel Indiana lawmakers to enact a mid-decade congressional map that could have wiped out all of the Hoosier State’s Democratic seats in the U.S. House of Representatives has failed.

“Republicans hold a 40-10 advantage in the state Senate but still rejected Trump’s pressure,” The Washington Post reported. HuffPost called it a “a furious pressure campaign by Trump.”

“Indiana’s proposed congressional map goes down in flames in the state Senate, 31-19,” Votebeat managing editor Nathaniel Rakich observed. 26 votes were needed for the new maps to have been adopted.

Politico reported that the “failed vote is the culmination of a brass-knuckled four-month pressure campaign from the White House on recalcitrant Indiana Republicans that included private meetings and public shaming from Trump, multiple visits from Vice President JD Vance, whip calls from Speaker Mike Johnson and veiled threats of withheld federal funds.

RELATED: ‘Shakedown’: Outrage Over Claim of Trump Plan to Defund Indiana in Map Clash

“Not even close to being close,” noted Bloomberg Government’s Jonathan Tamari. “I certainly did not predict the Indiana state Senate as a hotbed of Trump resistance.”

“Trump’s such a lame duck that he is getting his a– kicked by the Indiana State Senate,” remarked former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer.

Journalist Todd Zwillich called it a “Wholesale rejection” of a “threat” from the conservative Heritage Action.

Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), noted that Trump “didn’t just lose that vote, he got blown out.”

Lesson for national Republicans,” wrote Jessica Riedel of the Brookings Institution. “You don’t have to sell out every principle and publicly worship Trump. Really, you can just do things. And you should ask why it took some state legislators in Indiana to finally stand up for common sense governance.”

You do, unironically and in earnest, have to hand it to the Indiana GOP for not giving in to the threats on their lives etc.,” declared Everytown Senior Director of Communications Max Steele. “Trump is a duck getting lamer by the day. Hopefully this emboldens others to do what’s right.”

READ MORE: ‘Where Is Antifa Headquartered?’: FBI Official Struggles Defending Top Threat Label

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Shakedown’: Outrage Over Claim of Trump Plan to Defund Indiana in Map Clash

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Heritage Action and President Donald Trump are coming under fire after the conservative advocacy organization made a claim that the president threatened to defund the state of Indiana should lawmakers not pass legislation to redraw its congressional district maps.

“President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state,” Heritage Action wrote on social media on Thursday. “Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”

The post ended with, “#PassTheMap.”

While President Trump has publicly threatened to support primary challengers against lawmakers who oppose his redistricting push, NCRM has not found any news reports confirming Heritage Action’s assertion. It is possible the group is relying on information that has not been reported or made public.

READ MORE: ‘Where Is Antifa Headquartered?’: FBI Official Struggles Defending Top Threat Label

Should Indiana pass legislation to redistrict, it reportedly could pick up only two more GOP-held seats.

Critics blasted Heritage Action, a sister group to the Heritage Foundation, for appearing to support Trump’s alleged threat, and blasted the president as well.

“The president and one of the most influential conservative groups in the country are threatening to deprive all Indiana residents of paved roads, guard bases, and major projects if they don’t pass an extremely gerrymandered map to deprive voters of choice,” noted Isaac Saul, founder of Tangle News. “Awesome stuff.”

“Heritage sure loves authoritarianism,” remarked Media Matters researcher Zachary Pleat.

Calling it “nonsense,” Joel Griffith, a senior fellow at the conservative group Advancing American Freedom wrote: “Appalling to see @Heritage_Action endorse this unconstitutional threat by @realDonaldTrump. The President does not have power to coerce state legislators to redraw congressional maps.”

Others appeared to aim their ire directly at the president.

READ MORE: ‘Shaky’ House GOP Leadership ‘Losing Control’: Report

“This is the behavior of a madman,” declared Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“This isn’t conservative. This is fascist,” commented former Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh.

Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief David Corn declared the move “dictatorial.”

“This does not sound like an appropriate or legal use of federal authority or presidential discretion,” observed Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias.

“Nothing about this shakedown is conservative,” noted CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Jacob Stewart, the deputy opinion editor for the IndyStar called the move “illegal.”

Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the conservative online magazine The Dispatch, wrote: “I remember when Heritage cared about federalism, the rule of law, separation of powers, and all that stuff. Now it’s all ‘We love Trump’s musk, do what he says (or what Tucker says).'”

“This is called extortion,” wrote former White House correspondent Sam Youngman, also deeming it “illegal.”

“If this comes to pass,” wrote IndyStar columnist James Briggs, “then the story will be that Trump is punishing Indiana citizens for reasons that have nothing to do with them and so-called Indianans will see the punitive measures for what they are.”

READ MORE: ‘You’re a Loser Dude’: Carville Scorches Trump as ‘Done’

 

Image via Reuters

 

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‘Where Is Antifa Headquartered?’: FBI Official Struggles Defending Top Threat Label

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A top FBI official struggled to explain his claim that Antifa is the “most immediate violent threat” America is facing, as he was challenged to provide details.

Former Trump FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in 2020 congressional testimony that Antifa is “not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology.” The BBC has explained that Antifa is “a loosely organized, leftist movement that opposes far-right, racist and fascist groups.”

“Antifa is short for anti-fascist,” BBC added. “It is a loose, leaderless affiliation of mostly far-left activists.”

House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson on Thursday asked Michael Glasheen, FBI National Security Operations Director, to describe “organizations that pose, on the domestic side,” the number one and number two threats to the homeland.

READ MORE: ‘Shaky’ House GOP Leadership ‘Losing Control’: Report

Glasheen asked for clarification.

“Any domestic terrorist organizations that poses a threat to the homeland as we speak,” Thompson replied.

Pointing to President Trump’s designation of Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, Glasheen said, “That’s our primary concern right now.”

He described Antifa as “the most immediate violent threat that we’re facing on the domestic side.”

“So, where is the Antifa headquartered?” Thompson pressed.

After a pause, Glasheen said: “What we’re doing right now —” before Thompson cut him off.

“Where, in the United States, does Antifa exist?” he asked. “If it’s a terrorist organization — and you’ve identified it as number one.”

“We are building out the infrastructure right now,” Glasheen responded.

READ MORE: ‘You’re a Loser Dude’: Carville Scorches Trump as ‘Done’

“So what does that mean?” Thompson pressed. “Where do they exist? How many members do they have in the United States as of right now?”

“Well, that’s very fluid,” Glasheen said, describing it as “ongoing,” before comparing the situation to Al Qaeda and ISIS.

“I asked one question, sir,” Thompson replied. “I just want you to tell us. If you said Antifa is the number one domestic terrorist organization, operating in the United States, I just need to know where they are, how many people. I don’t want a name. I don’t want anything like that. Just, how many people have you identified with the FBI, that Antifa is made of?”

“Well, the investigations are active,” Glasheen replied.

“Sir, you wouldn’t come to this committee and say something you can’t prove. I know. I knew you wouldn’t do that. But you did.”

READ MORE: ‘His Heart Just Ain’t in It’: Report Reveals Trump’s ‘Achilles Heel’

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