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Copyright by José Andrés Araiza 2016 The Dissertation Committee for José Andrés Araiza certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Gay American Gothic: A Movement Returns to Its Past Committee: Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Supervisor Robert Jensen Mary Angela Bock Noel Landuyt Robert D. Byrd, Jr. Gay American Gothic: A Movement Returns to Its Past by José Andrés Araiza, BJ, MA Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2016 Dedication “An ideal life is lived as its own.” Acknowledgements My partner Dr. William B. Garner devoted endless hours to my ramblings and incoherent thoughts. Dr. Garner made my arguments stronger and sharper. He was my sounding board, my comic relief and my partner in all of life’s endeavors. v Gay American Gothic: A Movement Returns to Its Past by José Andrés Araiza, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2016 SUPERVISOR: Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez This discourse analysis seeks to understand how depictions of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) people within news coverage changed over the past 60 years and what those depictions mean for the future of a group of individuals who still face violence and bigotry and struggle to gain equal access to laws and rights. News stories are a salient tool to translate the unknown to known. This research approaches news stories as social constructions, which often times reflect existing power structures and shape social reality. Through the qualitative analysis of news coverage from four historically significant moments in Austin, Texas, this research demonstrates the path that gay and lesbian people experienced in the media—from being portrayed as sexual deviants to a homonormative monolith in the form of patriotic, domesticated, depoliticized, and desexualized couples. The news discourse over the past five decades demonstrated how stories slowly shed all radical politics from the gay liberationist past and adopted an assimilationist orientation. Bisexuals, transgender people, individuals who suffered from and died because of AIDS, and all other queer people who don’t adhere to the homonormative construct have been symbolically annihilated throughout history and continue to be. Journalists from mainstream, collegiate and alternative publications continue to utilize reporting practices that marginalize and delegitimize vi LGBTQ people. Nearly 70 years after making their first appearance in the mainstream press, framed as perverts and deviants, LGBTQ people continue to be subjected to homophobic discourse. By understanding changing news frames through the past six decades, this analysis attempts to weave an explanation of how the depictions may have and may continue to perpetuate false perceptions of LGBTQ people. This research interrogates the very power of the press, as an institution of power in society, to reflect hegemonic values, not challenge them. vii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 15 Changing Media Portrayals of Gay and Lesbian People .......................................15 Stonewall Changes Coverage .......................................................................19 “Bicoastal Bias” in Gay and Lesbian History ........................................................39 A White Monolith ..................................................................................................42 Journalists Paint a Skewed Picture ........................................................................45 Alternative Press Challenges Status Quo ...............................................................49 Queer Theory: Identity as a Constitutive Concept .................................................52 A New Homonormativity ......................................................................................64 RESEARCH STRATEGY 70 Terminology ...........................................................................................................70 Theoretical Foundations for a Qualitative Analysis ..............................................71 Method ...................................................................................................................75 Case study one: Gay Liberation Front takes a stand at the University of Texas at Austin. ...........................................................................................................83 Table 1: An Inventory of GLF Articles ........................................................84 Case study two: Texas officials attempt to quarantine “incorrigible” AIDS patients. .......................................................................................................................85 Table 2: An Inventory of Quarantine Articles ..............................................86 Case study three: Austin voters elect first openly gay state lawmaker. .................86 Table 3: An Inventory of Maxey Articles .....................................................87 Case study Four: First same-sex marriages in Texas. ............................................87 Table 4: An Inventory of Marriage Articles .................................................89 viii CASE STUDY ONE FINDINGS: GAY LIBERATION DESCENDED UPON AUSTIN 90 Case Study One Discussion .................................................................................103 CASE STUDY TWO FINDINGS: TEXAS’ PROPOSAL TO QUARANTINE “INCORRIGIBLE” AIDS VICTIMS 112 Case Study Two Discussion.................................................................................122 CASE STUDY THREE FINDINGS: TEXAS’ FIRST OPENLY GAY STATE LAWMAKER ELECTED 136 Case Study Three Discussion ...............................................................................144 CASE STUDY FOUR FINDINGS: SAME-SEX MARRIAGES ARRIVE IN TEXAS 155 Case Study Four Discussion ................................................................................164 RQ2: THE PATH FROM DIVERGENT TO CONVERGENT COVERAGE 174 RQ 3: AMERICAN GOTHIC: RETURNING TO THE PAST 186 DISSERTATION CONCLUSION 208 Bibliography ........................................................................................................231 Vita .....................................................................................................................242 ix INTRODUCTION On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country. Newspapers flooded the public sphere with pictures and articles of individuals celebrating in the streets, in the church pews, and in front of altars. In Austin, Texas, the mainstream daily newspaper, Austin American-Statesman, ran a rare afternoon edition that featured on the front page a large color photograph of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people and their allies celebrating in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, waving rainbow flags and carrying red balloons. The activists were cheering, smiling, and clapping. Under that picture was the headline “SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IS A RIGHT, COURT RULES.”1 This depiction of gays, lesbians, and their allies celebrating a Supreme Court ruling in their favor, in full public view, without fear of violence and unobstructed by police harassment, is a photograph that would have been inconceivable 60 years ago. In the 1950s, gay people were disparaged, demonized, and delegitimized in the mainstream press as they began appearing in the first significant news stories within the country’s leading newspapers. These articles reflected, rather than challenged, prevailing negative attitudes and opinions about gay people (Gross, 2001; Streitmatter, 2009). The anticommunist hysteria in the middle of the 20th century fed society’s fear of the gay man, who was loathed within the mainstream press and was “collapsed into the commie- queer bogeyman” (Gross, 2001, p. 21). Newspapers didn’t bother masking their disgust of gay people and utilized overtly disparaging and hostile discourse. In 1950, New York World-Telegram wrote that “perverts routinely fondle children” and the New York Post 1 wrote about how “sexual deviates find themselves so compulsively drawn to homosexual practice that they seduce and abuse boys” (Streitmatter, 2009, p. 14). The nation’s leading newspapers also targeted homosexual bureaucrats who, the New York Post described, as being “a menace in the government” (Miller, 1995, p. 261). The gay and lesbian identity and the public discourse about it have rapidly evolved over the past century, and that evolution is captured within the country’s newspapers. It’s clear from the academic scholarship that the worst of times are over for gays and lesbians in terms of media portrayals. Overtly disparaging and hostile coverage of gays and lesbians within the mainstream press is no longer the norm (Gross, 2001; Streitmatter, 2009; Walters, 2001). The main focus of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) movement organizations’ media advocacy efforts is not if the media will cover their issues but how to control the media’s framing of stories (Moscowitz, 2013). For a certain segment of the LGBTQ movement, invisibility is no longer an obstacle. Stories that concern White, middle class, domesticated gay and lesbian people and the issues important to them abound. The increased media visibility only shines a spotlight on a small segment of what some consider the larger LGBTQ community. While media invisibility is no longer a concern