ABSTRACT

This book traces the turbulent history of queer visibility in the Irish media to explore the processes by which a regionally based media system shaped queer identities within a highly conservative and religious population. The book details the emergence of an LGBTQ rights movement in Ireland and charts how this burgeoning movement utilised the media for the liberatory potential of advancing LGBTQ rights. However, mainstream media institutions also exploited queer identities for economic purposes, which, coupled with the eruption of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, disrupted the mainstreaming goals of queer visibility.

Drawing on industrial, societal and production culture determinants, the author identifies the shifting contours of queer visibility in the Irish media, uncovering the longstanding relationship between LGBTQ organising and the Irish media.

This book is suitable for students and scholars in gender studies, media studies, cultural studies and LGBTQ studies.

chapter 2|29 pages

Respectably gay?

Gay male visibility on current-affairs television (1974–1980)

chapter 3|27 pages

Fifty shades of gay

Lesbian and gay visibility on The Late Late Show (1980–1989)

chapter 5|26 pages

Coitus interruptus

Queer visibility on the sitcom and soap opera (1995–1998)

chapter |9 pages

Conclusion

Queer visibility beyond marriage equality and Leo Varadkar