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Queensland's Queer Press

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

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Extract

Since the 1970s, there has been a strong and active gay and lesbian press in the southern parts of Australia. This press emerged later in Queensland than in the southern states but today it reaches many queer Queenslanders and performs a vital and multifaceted role. While this press provides essential representation and visibility for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) population of Queensland, it also embodies a number of tensions inherent in this community. This article charts the development and history of the print media run by and for the queer community of Queensland, particularly focusing on the two major GLBTIQ periodicals currently available in Queensland. These are Queensland Pride, published monthly, and Q News, published fortnightly. The article explores the conflicts that exist in that queer print media, arguing that Queensland's queer press has struggled to adequately represent what has become an increasingly multifarious and diverse GLBTIQ ‘community’.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 

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References

Notes

1 The term ‘queer’ has been used throughout this article as it is the inclusive term commonly used by Queensland GLTBIQ community newspapers to refer to GLTBIQ individuals and the GLTBIQ community. Furthermore, the use of the word ‘queer’ is a political act which aims to subvert its previously negative connotations. See Teresa de Laurentis, ‘Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities — an Introduction’, differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 3(2) (1991): 296316.Google Scholar

2 Moore, Clive, Sunshine and Rainbows: The Development of Gay and Lesbian Culture in Queensland (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2001).Google Scholar

3 Moore, Clive, ‘Behaving Outrageously: Contemporary Gay Masculinity’, Journal of Australian Studies 56 (1998): 158–68; Clive Moore, ‘From Beats to Cyber-sex: Australian Gay Male Appropriation of Public Space’, in Russell, Lynette, ed., Boundary Writing: An Exploration of Race, Culture, and Gender Binaries in Contemporary Australia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006), 18–42.Google Scholar

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5 Smaal, Yorick, Body Politic to Body Beautiful: Constructing and Imaging Gay Male Identity in 1990s Australia, BA Hons thesis, University of Queensland, 2001.Google Scholar

6 See Martyn Goddard, ‘The Whole Truth: Limits on Gay and Lesbian Journalism’, in Wotherspoon, Garry, ed., Gay and Lesbian Perspectives III: Essays in Australian Culture (Sydney: Department of Economic History, University of Sydney, 1996), 1–16; Scahill, Anne, ‘Queer(ed) Media’, in Johnston, Craig and van Reyk, Paul, eds, Queer City: Gay and Lesbian Politics in Sydney (Sydney: Pluto Press, 2001), 179–92.Google Scholar

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9 Grace, ‘Sexuality Sells’: 89.Google Scholar

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11 Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 2000: 11.Google Scholar

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13 Advertisements featured in Queensland Pride, June 2007: 236.Google Scholar

14 Advertisements featured in Q News, 8 June 2007: 170.Google Scholar

15 Looker, Samantha, email to author, 1 June 2007.Google Scholar

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17 Queensland Pride, 233 (March 2007): 14.Google Scholar

18 For more on the reliability and methodology of content analysis, see particularly Kimberly A. Neuendorf, The Content Analysis Guidebook (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002); and Klaus Krippendorf, Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004).Google Scholar

19 All statistics and observations are based on content analysis conducted by author. For further information on results, categories used and editions catalogued, consult author.Google Scholar

20 Queensland Pride, 233, March 2007: 2829.Google Scholar

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22 Liz, ‘Letter to the Editor’, Queensland Pride, February 2005: 8.Google Scholar

23 Q News, 137, 3 March 2006: 31.Google Scholar

24 Q News, 138, 17 March 2006: 32.Google Scholar

25 Grace, ‘Sexuality Sells’: 97.Google Scholar

26 For an excellent survey of mainstream recognition of the gay and lesbian consumer, see Daniel L. Warlow, Gays, Lesbians and Consumer Behavior: Theory, Practice, and Research Issues in Marketing (New York: Haworth Press, 1996).Google Scholar

27 Johns, Merryn, email to author, 9 March 2007.Google Scholar

28 Scahill, ‘Queer(ed) Media’, 180.Google Scholar

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34 Scahill, ‘Queer(ed) Media’, 179.Google Scholar

35 Moore, ‘From Beats to Cyber-sex’, 29.Google Scholar

36 See particularly Moore, ‘Behaving Outrageously’, 158–68; and Moore, ‘From Beats to Cyber-sex’, 18–42.Google Scholar

37 Sunday Mail, 9 October 2006: 1.Google Scholar

38 Clacher, Iain, ‘School Exercise Deserves Support’, Queensland Pride, 229, October 2006: 14.Google Scholar

39 See, for example, Queensland Pride, 225, July 2006: 4; and Q News, 137, 3 March 2006: 6.Google Scholar

40 Q News, 137, 3 March 2006: 6.Google Scholar

41 Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983), 24–25.Google Scholar

42 This topic is discussed further in Rob Cover, ‘Engaging Sexualities: Lesbian/Gay Print Journalism, Community, Belonging, Social Space and Physical Place’, Pacific Journalism Review 11(1) (2005), 113–32.Google Scholar

43 Streitmatter, Rodger, Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America (London: Faber and Faber, 1989), xiii.Google Scholar

44 Queensland Pride, 229, November 2006: 27.Google Scholar

45 Gross, ‘Minorities, Majorities and the Media’, 91.Google Scholar