ABSTRACT
When analyzing contemporary LGBTQI movement mobilizations and their organizational communication practices, one cannot overlook the history of the Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement, and the media activism and cultural resistance practices that have arguably created the movement in the first place. Visual and artistic activism has always been a part of social mobilization strategies and protest culture. For as long as there has been mainstream culture, there have been those cultures of contention that have stood on the margins of it and have challenged the status quo through tools and repertoires of contention. This chapter captures the importance of historical media advocacy and activism in creating the Gay and Lesbian Liberation movement as it exists today. It traces the origins of the first European mobilizations of LGBTQI social movements; it then explores spaces of resistance for grassroots media production that have sprouted from the modern Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement in the United States, and the Italian mobilizations that have led to the first Pride. Finally, the evolution of social movements into digital realms is presented through the analysis of the organization of the Global Pride 2020, with a reflection on how movement dynamics have been re-envisioned during COVID-19.
