Selling Out: The Gay and Lesbian Movement Goes to Market

In the 1990s, a new niche market emerged in the United States: gay and lesbian consumers were targeted by both mainstream and gay and lesbian producers. "Selling Out" asks: What is the relationship between this niche market and the social movement that works for gay and lesbian rights? Locating the niche market and social movement in the context of the rise of consumer culture and pictorial advertising and the rise of identity-based social movements over the course of the 20th century, Chasin examines specific sites of intersection between them: the gay and lesbian press, advertising, boycotting, and the mechanisms of funding the movement. Chasin identifies the dynamics of race, gender, and class, as well as the ubiquitous nationalism, that inform both political and commercial practices in the gay and lesbian community.