The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide is a bimonthly, nationally distributed magazine of history, culture, and politics for LGBT people and their allies who are interested in the gamut of social, scientific, and cultural issues raised by same-sex sexuality. Library Journal (in its July 1995 issue) described it as “the journal of record for LGBT issues.” Currently, The G&LR has a circulation of 11,000.
Contents
History
The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review was founded by Dr. Richard Schneider Jr. in 1993 as an offshoot of The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Newsletter, a publication serving Harvard University's GLBT alumni group that Dr. Schneider edited (1987–1995). (Dr. Schneider took a doctorate in sociology at Harvard in the early 1980s.) The original goal was to provide a vehicle for publishing gay-related talks given at Harvard University. One such talk was that of novelist Andrew Holleran, who agreed to the publication of his 1992 address, “My Harvard,” a recollection of his undergraduate years—but only if the 8,000-word entry were published in its entirety. This called for a new vehicle, and the idea for a supplementary publication was born.
At the same time, the supply of serious GLBT publications was dwindling. Christopher Street, a venerable literary journal, was in decline, as was Boston-based Gay Community News. A magazine called Out/Look had come and gone. The Advocate, once an eclectic grab-bag of news, literary pieces, and political agitprop, was becoming a newsmagazine with a focus on politics and celebrities, going to a slick format ostensibly to compete with the newly founded Out and Genre magazines. But a void existed when it came to serious, in-depth discussion of GLBT history and culture, which Dr. Schneider set out to fill with The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, whose first quarterly issue came out in Winter 1994.
Initially published by the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus, in 1996 the magazine was organized as a 501(c)(3) educational corporation. In 2000, the magazine’s name was changed to The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide to reflect its independent status, and in 2001 the Review started to publish on a bimonthly basis.
Current status
As of 2008, paid subscriptions totaled about 8,000, with circulation estimated at 12,000. Dr. Schneider has remained editor-in-chief. Martha E. Stone, literary editor, has served from the beginning as well. As of August 2008, the G&LR had published 75 issues.
From the magazine’s inception, each issue has been organized around a conceptual theme with essays from leading scholars and writers in the given field. Recent themes have included, for example, “The science of homosexuality,” “Eros and God,” and “Weird Psychology.” In addition to these essays, which account for about 60% of the magazine’s content, each issue offers book reviews, several poems, and special columns such as “International Spectrum” and “Artist’s Profile.” The Review has recently launched a redesigned website, which offers a sampling of articles from the current and past issues, writers’ guidelines, subscription information, and so on.
The mission of The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide is to provide a forum for enlightened discussion of issues and ideas of importance to lesbians and gay men; to advance gay and lesbian culture by providing a quality vehicle for its best writers and thinkers; and to educate a broader public on gay and lesbian topics.”