Gay Media: Where Am I?

1. 
   

The Duke of Cambridge (Prince William to us proles) has appeared on the front page of the gay magazine Attitude, apparently to raise awareness and campaign against bullying. While undoubtedly a great cause, something rankles about it being seen as a brave and ground-breaking move for the royal family to sit down and talk to LGBT+ people about their lives in 2016. Although it’s a coup for Attitude and a news-stand hit in troubled times for the magazine industry, what we see is yet another white guy who is heterosexual on the front cover of a magazine aimed at gay and bisexual men.

Recently black queer rapper Mykki Blanco set off a discussion about the dominance of shirtless white guys in gay media (I hesitate to call it LGBT) on Twitter. Queer people of colour joined the debate on the #GayMediaSoWhite hashtag created by Vicktor T. The general consensus was that men of colour are rarely featured on the covers of major magazines, and if we are, we're usually part of a couple or group with white men. If not that, we might even feature on an alternate cover: see Attitude’s recent choice to feature model Laith Ashley on the cover, but to also offer up an alternate Matt Lister cover at the same time. There’s also an expectation that for media visibility, black men have to be extremely conventionally attractive and muscular, in a way that white straight reality TV and soap stars do not have to be.

If we featured at all inside the magazines, it’s usually in a feature about homophobia in our communities or majority black countries – important discussions, sure, but not our main stories... 

Independent Voices.

A good piece by Marcus Stow.
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Hilarious and predictable comments ensue!

These people will never be satified, never be happy.  And it has nothing to do with their sex or lack of it. 'These people [!!!] will never be satified [sic], never be happy...', 'God that was painful. I can tell you're bleating and whining about something but I have no idea what...', 'What a load of whining bigoted tripe...', 'Not being awkward, but what's a "CIS white gay man? You'll have to forgive me - I'm a 74 year-old lady who HONESTLY doesn't know.' etc etc.

Diddums!

And here's the case for the defence.

Some posh lady saying Prince William might help enlighten the darkies in the colonies, basically.

Guardian Cif

God that was painful. I can tell you're bleating and whining about something but I have no idea what. You do realise that the world isn't perfect don't you?