When you want to stay informed about the latest news and happenings effecting the LGBT community from a national and global perspective, these are the must-see websites you should check out.
The Advocate is the oldest and largest LGBT publication in the United States, founded before the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City, an incident that is generally credited as the beginning of the LGBT rights movement. The Advocate first began as a newsletter and eventually transformed into a newspaper in 1967, sold in Los Angeles gay bars for 25 cents. In 1974 The Advocate became a bi-weekly national news magazine which also contained a popular classifieds section advertising sexually explicit products and services, plus gay personal and escort ads. In 1985 these ads were split off into a separate magazine called Advocate Classifieds, and later another sister publication called Advocate Men featured nude pictorials of male models and sexually explicit gay fiction.
The Advocate won numerous mainstream publishing awards and set records for newsstand sales, circulation, and advertising. The magazine changed hands through the years in a series of mergers and acquisitions, first unsuccessfully with PlanetOut in 2006, and later with Here Media. In a cost-cutting move in 2008, Here Media, conceding that The Advocate print edition could no longer compete with local weekly LGBT newspapers and the internet for hard news, switched the magazine from a bi-weekly to a monthly publication cycle. Currently the print edition of The Advocate is published bi-monthly with 6 issues per year. You can check out The Advocates website here.
OUT magazine was launched in 1992 and by 2006 its circulation had reached 130,000 making it the largest circulation gay magazine in U.S. history. The magazine really took off when it switched to a format designed to appeal to the more affluent and style conscious gay demographic. OUT attracted international attention when it published its debut Power Issue in May 2007, with a cover that featured two models wearing masks of journalist Anderson Cooper and the actor Jodie Foster above the cover line “The Glass Closet.” In 2008, OUT was purchased by Here Media Inc which also obtained The Advocate. Since acquiring the brand, Here Media has expanded the magazine’s web presence by acquiring the valuable three letter domain name OUT.com, and also added a mobile application. The magazine and website are notable for publishing an annual “Out100” list of one hundred GLBT people making a difference in the world. Check out the OUT website here.
Instinct Magazine was published as a print edition from 1997 to 2015 and is now an online only source for GLBT lifestyle news and information. The website has sections for news, entertainment, travel and health. The website is free to view but offers a registration option that provides additional benefits such as making and voting on comments and entering contests for gay swag. Some of the top articles at Instinct include “Big D**k Horror Stories… What Happens When It’s Too Big?” and “Learning To Love Your Hairy Body”. Check out the Instinct website here.
Gay Star News is based in the United Kingdom and they offer a variety of LGBT interest news stories from around the world. You’ll also find celebrity gossip, pop culture and even sports news. Readers are encouraged to comment on stories and they’re not shy about doing so. Check out Gay Star News at this link.
In addition to the above national and global gay news sources there are several local gay newspapers that have an online presence worth checking out:
In California the must-see gay news sites are The Pride (Los Angeles), the San Francisco Bay Times and San Diego Gay News.
In New York Gay City News and Edge Magazine are an excellent sources for local LGBT news.
Chicago has the Windy City Times and in Texas check out the Dallas Voice.
And in Florida take a look at South Florida Gay News (SFGN) and Watermark Online (covering Orlando and Tampa).
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