In the last six years, a new niche market has emerged in the United States: Gay and lesbian consumers have been targeted by mainstream corporate producers and by gay and lesbian producers.  During the same six years, the gay and lesbian political movement has achieved a level of social visibility that has brought questions of gay civil rights into public discourse, from gays in the military to gay marriages to struggles over anti-discrimination legislation on the ballot and in court. A crucial question arises: What is the relationship between gay and lesbian market activity and the gay and lesbian political movement?

Cosponsored by: Department of English, Department of Sociology, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, Unit One/Allen Hall, Women's Studies Program, Counseling Center, Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns, Office of Women's Program, OUTpost