‘Butt’ and ‘XY’ are the gay magazines that found readership beyond the LGBTQIAA+ community in the last two decades. These periodicals have narrated stories via interviews and articles about gays, homosexuals and every other group with a non-mainstream sexual identity or orientation. In India magazines like ‘Pink pages’ and ‘Gaylaxy’ have been at the forefront of LGBT activism. 

Also read: Who was Frank Kameny, USA’s firebrand gay rights activist

History suggests that gay magazines are more than 120 years old.

Talking to BBC, Harry Cocks, associate history professor at the University of Nottingham said that in the 19th century it very difficult to talk about gay or lesbian identity

“It didn’t really exist, there wasn’t really any such thing,” he said. 

However, when one traces back – ‘Der Eigene’ was the first gay journal. It was published from 1896 to 1932 by Adolf Brand in Berlin. The first homosexual magazine in the United States -‘ONE’ – was published in 1953. 

Also read: Pride Month: Activists who brought change for LGBTQIA community

The ‘Film & Filming magazine’ was launched in 1954 when gay magazines were a strictly under-the-counter affair. But this publication hid in plain sight on the shelves of UK newsagents in the 1950s, BBC reports. 

“If you go through it, for many of us, it will tweak our gaydar looking at those 1950s issues – because there seems to be more bare-chested men than you’d expect,” Dr Justin Bengry, professor of MA Queer History and director of Goldsmiths’ Centre for Queer History told BBC. 

Also read: Top US politicians whose children came out of the closet

“Then you get to the personal ads at the back and you start seeing all of these ads for young bachelors looking to meet other young bachelors interested in things like physiques and photography and wrestling and it starts to all come together,” he added.

‘Film & Filming magazine’s’ editorial team was gay. BBC reports that only after gay sex was decriminalised in England and Wales, the magazine was able to work officially and feature naked men on the cover.

Every year the month of June, since 1969, is celebrated as the LGBTQIA+ pride month all across the world. The month celebrates dignity and equality and more LGBTQ community people came into the picture.