Abstract
ABSTRACT Despite the important role played by BLK magazine in the Black gay rights movement in the US, there is little scholarship focusing on the content of the magazine and how its pages gave voice and visibility to a marginalized population. Using archived issues of BLK, this paper conducted a qualitative content analysis of the articles published in the magazine from its inception in 1988 to its closure in 1994 to understand how the magazine used advocacy journalism to cover the Black LGBTQ community. Four themes emerged: Advocacy through representation, advocacy through critique and political intervention, advocacy through humanizing AIDS, and advocacy through analysis and interpretation. BLK acted as an advocate for the Black, gay community in various ways. Through its columns, briefs, cover stories, interviews, and news articles, BLK showed support for uplifting the community and addressing the problems it faced. More subtle support was visible in the choice of the stories that the magazine published and the voices it prioritized. The findings add to literature on the role of LGBTQ magazines in the gay rights movement in America and builds scholarship on the Black press’s coverage of gender and sexuality.
Published Version
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