Myths, problems and signs: the gay press, the temporariness of history and activism before 1978

Abstract

The literature on the Brazilian Homosexual Movement (MHB) crystallized the idea of a founding myth, neglecting the historical process and its main challenge – to overcome the stigma of a spoiled identity, aspects that I discussed elsewhere (COLAÇO RODRIGUES, 2022). The rudimentary gay press is not recognized as an integral part. This article examines the first edition of the newspaper Baby (Salvador, 1969), several editions of Gente Gay, Snob and Aliança de Ativistas Homossexuais, the debate about this press in Lampião da Esquina, and international, French, and US gay publications and the reference literature on the subject. Understanding social movement as a category that covers all of its stages, including the embryonic one (GOHN, 2008 [1997], p. 259), the paper establishes that such Brazilian publications were not limited to “a humorous parody of high society’s mundane events” (MACRAE, 2018 [1986], p. 165). They effectively participated on the construction of political awareness and collective identity of homosexuals, thus belonging to the BHM.