All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America

364 Pages·2001·16.009 MB·English

by  Suzanna Danuta Walters

THE STORY OF
GAY VISIBILITY
IN AMERICA
S U Z A N N A
DANUTA WALTERS

All the Rage

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THE STORY OF GAY
VISIBILITY IN AMERICA
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS • CHICAGO AND LONDON
Portions of chapter 10 were published as “Wedding Bells and Baby Carriages: Heterosexuals Imagine
Gay Families, Gay Families Imagine Themselves," in Lines of Narrative: Psychological Perspectives, edited
by Molly Andrews et al. (New York: Routledge, 2001), and are reprinted here by permission.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2001 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2001
Paperback edition 2003
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-87231-9 (cldth)
ISBN: 0-226-87232-7 (paperback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walters, Suzanna Danuta
All the rage : the story of gay visibility in America/Suzanna Danuta Walters,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-226-87231-9
1. Homosexuality on television. 2. Homosexuality in motion pictures.
3. Gays in popular culture. 4. Gays—United States—Identity. 5. Gay consumers—
United States. I. Title.
PN1992.8.H64 W35 2001
791.45'653 — dc21 2001001665
©The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
This book is dedicated to the two most important companeras
in my life, my mother Marianne and my daughter Emma,
whose combination of wisdom, commitment, compassion, and
humor provide endless joy in the present and expansive hope
for the future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
PROLOGUE xiii
Part One: IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE
WORST OF TIMES
1 The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name: The Explosion
of Gay Visibility
3
2 Pride and Prejudice: The Changing Context of Gay
Visibility
30
Part Owo: A KISS IS JUST A KISS
3 Ready for Prime Time? TV Comes Out of the Closet
59
4 Dossier on Ellen
81
5 All Gay, All the Time?
95
Part Dliree: COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU
6 Hiding, Dying, and Dressing-Up
131
7 Out Is In: Liberal Narratives for the Nineties
149
Part JJour: IN THE FAMILY WAY
8 Wedding Bell Blues: Imagining Marriage
179
9 Mom, I’ve Got Something to Tell You: The Coming-Out
Story in the Age of Visibility
197
10 It Takes a Lesbian Village to Raise a Child:
Parenting Possibilities
210
Part Jiue: MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND
11 Consuming Queers: Advertising and the Gay Market
235
12 If It’s Pink We’ll Sell It: Gay Entrepreneurship
273
Conciuiion: BEYOND VISIBILITY (WELCOME TO OUR
RAINBOW WORLD) 290
NOTES 301
BIBLIOGRAPHY 315
INDEX 323
viii CONTENTS