OutWeek
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| Categories | Gay news periodical |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Weekly |
| First issue | June 26, 1989 |
| Final issue | June 1991 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
OutWeek Magazine was an influential gay and lesbian weekly news magazine published in New York City from 1989 to 1991. During its two-year existence, OutWeek was widely considered the leading voice of AIDS activism and the initiator of a radical new sensibility in lesbian and gay journalism.
OutWeek was originally conceived by musician and producer Gabriel Rotello. As a member of the activist group ACT UP, Rotello felt that New York needed a publication that would represent ACT UP’s new, more radical approach to activism.
At the same time, businessman and ACT UP member Kendall Morrison was planning to start a New York magazine that would provide a venue for advertising his popular gay phone sex businesses. Although neither Rotello nor Morrison had any experience in journalism, the two decided to team up, with Morrison acting as publisher and Rotello as editor-in-chief.
From its first issue on June 26, 1989, OutWeek attracted considerable attention and the magazine repeatedly broke major stories both in New York and nationally.
Its coverage of the Covenant House sex scandal, and its exclusive interview with Father Bruce Ritter's main accuser, Kevin Kite, helped bring about Ritter's resignation.
At about the same time, OutWeek ignited a major local controversy by revealing that Mayor David Dinkins's newly appointed Health Commissioner, Woody Meyers, advocated the quarantining of people with AIDS. The subsequent controversy pitted Dinkins's gay supporters against his black supporters (Meyers is black), leading the New York Times to call the dispute "by far the most bitter" of the Dinkins administration.
By repeatedly breaking major stories, and through its intense coverage of the AIDS crisis, OutWeek became a significant journalistic presence in New York and was considered a "must read" in political and media circles far beyond the gay and lesbian community.
OutWeek is probably best remembered for sparking the "outing" controversy. This began in Michelangelo Signorile's "GossipWatch" columns, in which the fiery writer railed against then-closeted public figures like David Geffen and Liz Smith for what he considered their complicity in a culture of silence around AIDS and gay rights.
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