About the Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide
Mission
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.
Structure
The Review (Published as The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, 1994-1999) is organized as a 501(c)(3) educational corporation, and most of its staff members are volunteers. Over 10,000 copies are distributed nationally and internationally.
Background
With the publication of the first issue in the winter of 1994, The Gay & Lesbian Review / Worldwide* rushed into a huge vacuum in gay and lesbian literary culture -- a void that stretched all the way from The Atlantic and The New Republic to The New York Review of Books. Nowhere in Gaydom was there a journal for the literate non-specialist, offering the best writing and thinking our culture had to offer, covering a wide range of topics, handsomely produced, and always a pleasure to read.
This was the kind of publication The Review set out to become -- all based on the hunch that there was a critical mass of thinking, educated lesbians and gay men out there capable of supporting such a journal. The fact that we're still going strong well over a decade later demonstrates that our hunch was well-founded. Turns out that there is a substantial gay and lesbian readership who wants to be challenged by the play of ideas and wants to go there in depth -- and demands fine writing and smart editing in any publication they read.
Having assembled such a readership, The Review has been able to play a major role in bringing together a community of literate gay people on a national scale. "It's our intellectual journal," commented Larry Kramer in The New York Times. The Review has become the place where the big debates about gay and lesbian culture and politics are being aired.
Each issue of The Review is organized around a theme, such as "The Science of Homosexuality," "Human Rights Around the World," and "The Art of the Memoir." The goal is always to cover a topic fairly and comprehensively by featuring a variety of perspectives from the leading contributors to the field. Each issue includes about a dozen essays and a larger number of book and other reviews, plus a smattering of poetry. And each issue is fully illustrated with the brilliant caricatures of Charles Hefling.
The importance of The Review as a national forum was recognized by Library Journal after our first year of publication, which dubbed us "the journal of record" for the discussion of gay and lesbian topics. Late in 1997, Temple University Press published a "Best of" volume incorporating many of our most popular articles from our first few years. Last year, The New York Times ran a major feature article on The Review, highlighting its role as a powerful force in current gay and lesbian intellectual life.
About This Web Site
The glreview.com web site archives the Table of Contents for recent printed copies of the Gay & Lesbian Review Magazine and has samplings of interesting articles from past and recent issues. You can subscribe online to receive the G&LR magazine bimonthly in the mail.
