I’m a sucker for vintage gay pin-up mags – so much that I wrote about them for an issue of Out Magazine in 2023. What I never realized is that these racy publications actually led to a Supreme Court victory that would pave the way for future civil rights efforts.

In Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement, historian David K. Johnson reveals how male physique magazines in the 1960s were central to gay culture. Throughout this meticulous book, which was a finalist in 2020 for the Randy Shilts Award for gay nonfiction, Johnson sheds light on this neglected chapter of LGBTQ history and reveals how the emergence of a gay commercial network during the physique era paved the way for a social revolution and led the gay political movement.

Purchase Buying Gay at The Little Gay Shop website or at your local LGBTQ-owned bookstore.

Spanning two decades, Buying Gay weaves a compelling narrative that will change how you think about the origins of gay visibility and activism in America. It triggered a movement impacting many fields, including American cultural history, queer history and the history of consumerism.

About the Author

David K. Johnson is one of the preeminent scholars of LGBTQ history. A professor at the University of South Florida, he has dedicated his career to unearthing the overlooked stories and unsung heroes of the gay rights movement.

His other book, The Lavender Scare, is the definitive account of the US government's decades-long campaign to fire homosexuals from federal employment. Buying Gay reflects his signature approach of reframing familiar narratives through surprising new lenses.

Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement

While the Stonewall riots of 1969 are often seen as the catalyst for the gay rights movement, Johnson argues that its true roots go back much further. In the conservative 1950s, male physique magazines weren't just popular; they were revolutionary and a precursor to the emerging queer culture of the 1960s.

Publications like Physique Pictorial did more than titillate. By eroticizing the male form, they validated gay desire at a time when homosexuality was still considered a mental illness. And by building a nationwide readership, they created a covert network and gay community that would later mobilize for change.

Some of these periodicals had full frontal male nudity, which led one postmaster in Virginia to restrict their delivery. But magazines with female nudity didn’t have these same restrictions, argued these physique entrepreneurs, who at the time were managing the largest gay media outlets America had. They sued, with the case ultimately going up to the Supreme Court, and in MANual Enterprises Inc. v. Day, the sharply divided court ruled that nude photographs were not considered obscene.

As America continues to fight for equality and inclusion, Buying Gay is essential reading. It reminds us that even in the darkest times, marginalized communities have always found creative ways to claim space and forge connections. And it poses provocative questions about the unsung role of gay consumer culture in social progress. ⬥