Pink Press

The term “pink press” refers to printed magazines created for, and most often by, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people, or LGBTQs. In the broadest sense, it includes a great diversity of publications, which could be amateur or professional, not-for-profit or commercial, personal or collective, and focused on art, activism, or private life. This entry discusses the emergence and development of the pink press at different historical moments in different geographical contexts. First, it presents the history of the pink press in the West, starting with the sexologist movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, moving on to the homophile movement in the 1950s and 1960s, gay liberation in the 1970s, and the HIV/AIDS activism in the 1980s and 1990s. Second, it emphasizes the transnational character of the pink press, pointing to the importance of traveling people and traveling content to the development of the network of LGBTQ magazines. In this section, different conceptualizations of globalization of LGBTQ culture, in which the magazines have played an important role, are discussed. Third, it zooms in on different trajectories of commercialization of the pink press in relation to different magazines published in different countries, highlighting the rise of the market research on gay and lesbian readership and the invention of the gay market. Finally, the entry reflects on the role of the so-called digital revolution for the changing character of the pink press.