Journalism and Society- Part I: LGBT
Why is this relevant?
The world and society in 2018 are at a point where we’re all becoming much more accepting of what typically perceived as ‘different’. The LGBT community, in particular, has come a long way to get to this point, but there are still some struggles that the community faces. Though the rights have improved worldwide and the majority of society accept and support the community, I’m still unsure of whether or not the media and journalism represent LGBT in the best way it could and should in the era that we are in. So in this piece, I’m going to look at the relationship between sexuality and journalism, and the role journalism plays in the community.
Journalism has become more than just your weekly newspaper or monthly magazine subscription, you now see journalism everywhere. Mostly online and on social media, which has proven to be both a blessing and a curse to modern society. In terms of exposure for the LGBT community, the content put out into mainstream media discussing these topics can be both positive and negative. I saw an article on the Independent website, which talked about examples of how journalism publications have portrayed the LGBT community, specifically homosexuality, in a negative way.
On to the main part of this piece- how is Journalism representing the LGBT community?
In 2016, the Daily Mail’s front page story described HIV prevention medication as a ‘promiscuity pill’ and that if the NHS were to fund this pull it would represent a ‘skewed sense of values’ despite it being proven by studies that it is cheaper to prevent HIV than to treat it. The newspaper also published a story which stated that funding PrEP would deprive children of the care they needed and characterised gay sex as a threat to the health of the nation. Even the comment section of this article which was posted online gave indications towards homophobia, with people saying “the NHS should not be paying men to be irresponsible” and “the risk is simply down to lifestyle choice” completely disregarding the fact that homosexuality is not a choice. This kind of article could’ve been written in a way that didn’t appear to blame gay men, but instead discussed the issue simply in regards to NHS funding.
In addition to this, there was a column article published in 2017 discussing the frustration towards trans-friendly toilets and unisex uniforms, and the journalist said: “Diversity Nazis are now hell-bent on eradicating any notion of ‘men’ and ‘women’ as part of their crusade to destroy every last vestige of traditionalism”. This article shocked me because I would’ve thought in the modern era we are in that this negative and controversial opinion would not be morally right to publish, especially in a national newspaper. From a personal point of view, more should be done to encourage diversity and to encourage change and acceptance, not putting society down because one man doesn’t agree with the way society is shaping. The article also voiced disapproval of the possibility that boys and men would wear burqas in the future. I think editorially this was a wrong move, I understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but to publish an article that quite clearly discriminates against not just sexuality or transgender, but about religion and ethnicity, is not okay.
Society is moving forward with acceptance of diversity and we’re now starting to encourage people to be themselves free of discrimination, and I don’t think articles like this should be published especially when it’s inevitably going to reach a large audience. In contrast to this though, there are many articles that display the LGBT community and diversity in a more positive way.
Back in 2015, The Guardian posted an opinion piece from Zach Stafford discussing the consequences and effects of gay conversion therapy, discussing how the process leads to a higher suicide rate and how it causes more mental problems. This type of article really raises awareness to the mainstream audience on how there are still some serious issues going on in certain countries regarding homosexuality and it positively aims to reduce the number of LGBT deaths and mental health issues. Even though it isn’t a nice topic, its necessary to raise this awareness and the general public need to see the risks of discrimination. The article was written by an LGBT journalist who speaks of his personal experience with discrimination growing up which again gives more insight to a mainstream audience of the struggles some people go through.
The Guardian also published an article last month discussing the legalisation of gay sex in India and was a truly positive and heart-warming article. They reported on the events leading up to a scrap of the ban, as well as showing support for the community and commenting on how important this change is for society. The article also shows photographs of the Indian LBGT community celebrating this event. This is the exposure that I feel is relevant and necessary for the community, rather than putting more negativity towards an already difficult subject.
I think it can be argued that one of the reasons for negative exposure in journalism could be down to the journalists themselves, I’ve found from looking around at some articles that the deeper more stronger opinion pieces which show the LGBT community in a positive way are written by journalists who are members of the community themselves, whereas the more negative ones are written by people who don’t fully understand or support the community. The rise of LGBT journalists over the last 10–20 years has led to magazines and publications mostly run by members of the community and are aimed at the LGBT demographic.
The most popular magazines that have stemmed from the LGBT community are Attitude, Gay Times, Out Magazine and FTM Magazine. Attitude is aimed at gay males between the ages of 20 to 30, Gay Times is aimed at both gay and bisexual men, Out Magazine is aimed at both gay and lesbian members of LGBT, and FTM is aimed at the transgender community. In 2015, Attitude became not just the best selling gay magazine, but the best digital men’s magazine in the UK. The fact that this organisation has been so popular says a lot for how society has evolved and how it is most likely not just gay men reading this magazine. I think that a lot of the people who support homosexuality will read Attitude online in order to find out more about the community, and it shows that the general public is more open to consuming LGBT related news.
While its very good that in this era we have magazines that produce content for LGBT readers, and the magazines touch on some very important issues, I don’t think this should be the main place that the community is consistently portrayed in a positive way. I think that even though its amazing to see such good statistics for a gay magazine, it shouldn’t necessarily be branded as a ‘gay magazine’ because the community may not necessarily only want to read about gay-related topics, the readers may be interested in other issues and other events and I think there should be a higher amount of more versatile stories.
The journalists who write for LGBT magazines are usually members of the community themselves and so have strong opinions on the subject and want to share their opinion, which I think is great, but I think if there were to be some more heterosexual journalists writing for those publications it would allow for a more flexible and intriguing read.
What do I think of all this? Where are we heading in the future?
In terms of the future of LGBT in journalism, I don’t think there should be a border between magazines for straight males and magazines for gay males. Having said that, I don’t think that either magazine would necessarily discriminate against the other, I just think that it would be nice to see some LGBT aimed content in more mainstream magazines such as GQ. It seems that gay magazines have become a niche, and are only really focused on by members of the LGBT community, whereas I think there should be more diversity in who is producing the content and who is receiving it.
I don’t think that we’re in a bad place in terms of LGBT in journalism, I think it’s incredible how far society has come with being open and accepting, but the media still seems to be prone to publishing articles that view homosexuality as something more than it is, its not a lifestyle choice and its certainly not a problem, its just a matter of who someone is attracted to, and I think in the next 10 years I’d like to see it treated as something completely normal and for there to not have to be a separate magazine for the LGBT community.
