AfterEllen.com, founded in April 2002, is a culture website that focuses on the portrayal of lesbian and bisexual women in the media.[1][2]TheBacklot.com was AfterEllen's companion site for gay and bisexual men. It was originally launched in January 2005 as AfterElton.com.[3] TheBacklot was dissolved in June 2015.[4]
A website or Web site is a collection of related network web resources, such as web pages, multimedia content, which are typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. Notable examples are wikipedia.org, google.com, and amazon.com.
A lesbian is a homosexual woman. The word lesbian is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexuality or same-sex attraction.
Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one sex or gender. It may also be defined as romantic or sexual attraction to people of any sex or gender identity, which is also known as pansexuality.
AfterEllen was founded by Sarah Warn, and AfterElton by Warn, Michael Jensen, and Brent Hartinger. Warn initially served as Editor in Chief of both websites. Michael Jensen became Editor in Chief of AfterElton in November 2005. Karman Kregloe became the Editor in Chief of AfterEllen in November 2009, and Dennis Ayers took over as Editor in Chief of AfterElton in 2011.
Sarah Warn is an American writer and the former editor of entertainment website AfterEllen.com.
Brent Hartinger is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his novels about gay teenagers.
AfterEllen and AfterElton were both bought in 2006 by cable television channel Logo.[citation needed] In October 2014, online publisher Evolve Media acquired AfterEllen from Viacom Media Networks and Trish Bendix became Editor in Chief.[5][6][7] Bendix was fired by Evolve Media on September 20, 2016.[8] On December 12, 2016, Memoree Joelle became the new Editor in Chief.[9]
Logo TV is an American pay television channel that is owned by Viacom Media Networks. Launched in 2005, it was originally aimed primarily at LGBT viewers, but in 2012 it shifted its focus towards general cultural and lifestyle programming.
Lesbian Nation, a multimedia company owned by Memoree Joelle and business partner Gaye Chapman, bought AfterEllen on March 1, 2019.[10]
Ellen Lee DeGeneres is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the popular sitcom Ellen from 1994 to 1998 and has hosted her syndicated TV talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, since 2003.
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor for LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation or of their gender identity. The term coming out can also be used in various non-LGBT applications.
"The Puppy Episode" is a two-part episode of the situation comedy television series Ellen. The episode details lead character Ellen Morgan's realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out. It was the 22nd and 23rd episode of the series' 4th season. The episode was written by series star Ellen DeGeneres with Mark Driscoll, Tracy Newman, Dava Savel and Jonathan Stark and directed by Gil Junger. It originally aired on ABC on April 30, 1997. The title was used as a code name for Ellen's coming out so as to keep the whole episode under wraps.
The website reports on subjects of popular culture, such as books, celebrity, fashion, film, music, and television news; publishing articles, regular columns, reviews, recaps of television shows with lesbian and bisexual characters or subtextual content, and several blogs. Weekly vlogs became a key feature, the more popular of which included "Brunch With Bridget", "Lesbian Love", and "Is This Awesome?" The site also featured popular web series, such as the Streamy Award-winning and Webby Award-nominated Anyone But Me.[citation needed]
As a physical object, a book is a stack of usually rectangular pages oriented with one edge tied, sewn, or otherwise fixed together and then bound to the flexible spine of a protective cover of heavier, relatively inflexible material. The technical term for this physical arrangement is codex. In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its immediate predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf, and each side of a leaf is a page.
Celebrity is the fame and public attention accorded by the mass media to individuals or groups or, occasionally, animals, but is usually applied to the persons or groups of people themselves who receive such a status of fame and attention. Celebrity status is often associated with wealth, while fame often provides opportunities to earn revenue.
Fashion is a popular style, especially in clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle and body. Fashion is a distinctive and often constant trend in the style in which people present themselves. A fashion can become the prevailing style in behaviour or manifest the newest creations of designers, technologists, engineers, and design managers.
In March 2008, it was named one of "the world's 50 most powerful blogs" by British newspaper The Guardian for its "irreverent look at how the lesbian community is represented in the media.[11] At the time considered the top website for lesbian women, that same year it averaged "over 700,000 readers" per month.[12] In June 2011, it ranked as the second most popular LGBT website with 203,924 monthly visitors, after The Advocate.[13]
In October 2009, Sarah Warn announced that associate editor Karman Kregloe would take over as Editor in Chief.[14]
In October 2014, AfterEllen was acquired by Evolve Media and made a part of its TotallyHer Media subsidiary.[15][5][6] Kregloe announced that the role of Editor in Chief was to be assumed by managing editor Trish Bendix.[16]
In November 2014, TotallyHer Media announced the launch of The Lphabet, a original AfterEllen online comedy series that would "demystify terms from the lesbian and bi community".[17]
In September 2016, Trish Bendix announced her departure on her personal Tumblr blog and stated that AfterEllen was shutting down, with only its archive to be kept live.[18] TotallyHer Media denied the allegation by Bendix, calling it a "false rumor", and removed Bendix from her position ahead of her scheduled departure.[19][20][8]
Memoree Joelle became Editor in Chief of AfterEllen in December 2016.[9] Joelle promised readers that there would be a return to the website's original intention of maintaining a "feminist perspective" and staying "true to a lesbian/bi perspective", as well as "more racial diversity and age diversity".[9] Soon afterwards, Joelle issued a statement in which she questioned the motives behind the increase in "attack" language directed at lesbians from members of the LGBT community, and the decline in interest within it "to hear the variety of perspectives in our community".[21] Under her editorial direction, articles and essays which are political in nature have become more frequent.
In December 2016, Joelle added her personal signature to the "L is out of GBT" protest statement on Change.org: "I'm signing because I see the word lesbian becoming a bad word under lgbt, in a time when it's trendy to be pansexual or fluid, etc which are all newly invented terms. I don't agree with the word queer being applied to me under this acronym as it isn't accurate, and I don't agree with all of the gender politics the lgbt acronym focuses on. Further, I don't appreciate being lumped into an acronym where the only thing we have in common is being minorities, as it is more apparent that it erases lesbian identity rather than supporting/including it."[22] Former AfterEllen senior editor Heather Hogan criticized Joelle on Twitter for doing so,[23] accusing Joelle of promoting a "lesbophobia" movement on AfterEllen which, according to Hogan, was a disguise for "anti-trans, anti-bi" rhetoric.[24] Joelle denied Hogan's accusations and described her reasoning as "a FORM of activism".[25]
In 2018, after banning use of the controversial term "TERF"[26] on its website and social media channels,[27][28] publishing articles such as "Girl Dick, the Cotton Ceiling and the Cultural War on Lesbians, Girls and Women",[29] and the op-ed "How I became the most hated lesbian in Baltimore" by Julia Beck,[30] as well as for giving publicity to vloggers who criticized trans women,[31] AfterEllen was by implication accused of transphobia, along with other unidentified publications, in a general declaration titled "Not in our name" signed by representatives of nine lesbian and queer publications in which "trans misogynistic content" in "so-called lesbian publications" was condemned, including "male-owned media companies" that profited "from the traffic generated by [such] controversies".[32][33] The trans-related controversy received coverage on mainstream mediaLGBTQ website NBC Out.[34] In response to NBC Out's news story, Joelle and AfterEllen colleagues described the "Not in our name" statement as "a continuation of a false narrative that's been created to perpetuate division and anxiety within the lesbian community", and denounced the backlash launched against AfterEllen for addressing issues such as "lesbians [being] called 'vagina fetishists' with 'genital preferences'";[35][36] repudiating the "idea that lesbians are not allowed to have an opinion, or feel anything for that matter. That we can't have any autonomy. That we must bow to groupthink at every turn or be subjected to homophobic slurs, attacks on our jobs, doxing."[37]
In March 2019, Memoree Joelle announced the acquisition of AfterEllen on March 1 by Lesbian Nation, a multimedia company owned by Joelle and business partner Gaye Chapman.[38][10]
Hot 100
The "Hot 100" is an annual readers poll, begun in 2007, of the "top names in film, television, music, sports and fashion".[39]
TheBacklot was originally known under the name "AfterElton.com". The site was not affiliated with Elton John, although its original name refers to the milestone for gay men when John publicly came out. The site featured television, film, music, books, and celebrity news. It published articles, regular columns, reviews, recaps of television shows with gay and bisexual characters, and maintained several blogs, including the "Meme" by Ed Kennedy.[49] Co-founder Michael Jensen was Editor-in-Chief from 2005 until September 25, 2011, when Dennis Ayers, formerly the site's managing editor, took over as editor of the site.[50] On January 12, 2012, the site announced that Louis Virtel had been hired as its West Coast entertainment editor.[51]
On January 31, 2013, Dennis Ayers announced that AfterElton would be changing its name to TheBacklot.com in April. The change was motivated by a desire to separate the site from its "AfterEllen's little brother" origin and to reflect the site's general focus on Hollywood, and the film and television industry.[52] The relaunch under the new name took place on April 17, 2013.
On June 29, 2015, Ayers announced that the TheBacklot was merging with NewNowNext, an LGBT-themed entertainment website owned by Logo. TheBacklot name was discontinued and Dan Avery became Editor-in-Chief of the combined site.[4]
Out is an American LGBT fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any LGBT monthly publication in the United States. It presents itself in an editorial manner similar to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was owned by Robert Hardman of Boston, its original investor, until 2000, when he sold it to LPI Media, which was later acquired by PlanetOut Inc. In 2008, PlanetOut Inc. sold LPI Media to Regent Entertainment Media, Inc., a division of Here Media, which also owns Here TV.
Rachel Anne Maddow is an American television host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts The Rachel Maddow Show, a nightly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event co-anchor alongside Brian Williams. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio.
A gay icon is a public figure who is embraced by many within lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities.
Kathryn McKinnon Berthold, known professionally as Kate McKinnon, is an American actress and comedian. She is widely known as a regular cast member on The Big Gay Sketch Show (2007–2010) and Saturday Night Live (2012–present). She is also known for her film roles as Dr. Jillian Holtzmann in the supernatural comedy Ghostbusters (2016), Mary Winetoss in the comedy Office Christmas Party (2016), Pippa in the comedy Rough Night (2017), and Morgan in the action comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018).
Tucky Williams is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actress. She is known for creating and portraying Evan in the web series Girl/Girl Scene.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender(LGBT)music is grouping of musical genres that focus on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement.
In 2014, Dallas' Oak Lawn District was voted the number one gayborhood in the country by Out Traveler. According to a 2006 study by the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has the largest gay population in Texas.
↑ Statement: L is out of GBT. Change.org. p. Reasons for signing. April 2, 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2019. (@ https://www.change.org/p/hrc-statement-l-is-out-of-gbt. The URL for Change.org is blacklisted on Wikipedia and cannot be linked in a citation template.)
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