By the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the portrayal of gay and queer folk in the US had vastly improved. This, in turn, had a positive effect on the Gay Liberation Movement. One defining event that changed the perception of homosexuality and gay rights was the Stonewall riots. The riots helped in advocating for gay rights through extensive media coverage (Poehlmann 18). Through the movement, the media became impartial in their representation of the issues that concerned the gays. Before 1960, the majority of hate crimes were veered at persons who were perceived to be gay.
Before the riots, the media rarely covered events and stories concerning the LGBT community. For example, in 1960, Robert Wagner, the then mayor of New York, led an effort to close all gay bars in preparation for the World Trade Fair. Clients that went to that bar risked their lives during this time. However, media reports on the impact of the closure and the risk involved for the clients were not publicized.
The said community was perceived as immoral, and many people did not want to talk about LGBT issues. However, after the riots, the media started reporting stories on the plight of gays in America. For example, there was comprehensive coverage on the death of Matthew Shepard, a student of Wyoming, who was murdered because he was gay (Samaha 298). The media then became a defender of people who were victimized because of their sexual orientation.
Indeed, news on television started portraying gays as a minority group. Hate crimes were now reported as inhumane and protection of gays was widely debated in mainstream media (Streitmatter 224). Their plight of gays was compared to that of slaves and actions were taken against them termed inhumane. In turn, the press shaped society’s perception of sexual orientation where communities started to believe that sexual orientation is not a choice.
Thus, the debate over whether gays are born with different sexual orientation or whether it is a conscious choice was born. The individual stories that were highlighted in the news also drew interest in storytelling and were captured by Hollywood. Such personal stories showed gays as victims of discrimination even though they too are human. In turn, society started accepting gays, and this led to the Gay Liberation Movement. The highlighting of legal cases on homosexuality also shaped an accepting perspective towards gays. For example, the 2003 Lawrence vs. Texas case was widely televised (Streitmatter 221). The case was tried in the Supreme Court and largely affected public opinion of gay rights.
It can be argued that media coverage of the LGBT community in the late 1990s influenced coverage of the same people today. As stated, during the said period, the media was a strong advocate for gay rights. Today, whereas the media still is a strong advocate for the LGBT community it has changed strategies. In the 1990s, the plan was to have the heterosexual community accept that gays have rights. Today, the strategy is to have governments put down policies that protect gay people. One can rightfully argue that the coverage done in the late 1990s was a stepping stone for the achievements that have been recorded since then. For example, there are gay personalities in the media who are used to prove that gay people are no different from the rest.
Works Cited
Poehlmann, Tristan. The Stonewall Riots: The Fight for LGBT Rights. ABDO Publishing, 2016.
Samaha, Joel. Criminal Law. Cengage, 2013.
Streitmatter, Rodger. Mightier than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History. Taylor & Francis, 2018.