Many people consider the Stonewall uprising to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. But before the raid that launched a thousand Pride parades — and many more rainbow-washing advertisements — activist entrepreneurs were leveraging capitalism to build both queer equality and community, work that later secured one of America’s earliest Supreme Court victories for gay rights.
Our cast of characters includes Bob Mizer, H. Lynn Womack, Physique Pictorial, and plenty of all too familiar “think of the children” anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric that has persisted for decades, most recently in today’s political vitriol and legislative tomfoolery regarding drag and gender.
Even if you don’t know physique publications by name, you know the references when you see them. The black-and-white illustrations of muscle heads and Grecian warrior-inspired pinups are considered vintage today. — the Starz comedy about an erotic but erudite women’s magazine in the ’70s — but with editorials on gay stuff instead of feminism.
