'OUT FRONT Magazine' is a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word 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 fema ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

magazine and daily online publication in the

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

metropolitan area. ''OUT FRONT'' was founded by Phil Price with its first issue hitting the stands on April 2, 1976. 'OUT FRONT' is the second oldest independent LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) publication in the United StatesInterview with Greg Montoya, owner/editor-in-chief of OUT FRONT, February 22, 2010

History

After the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of J ...

on June 28, 1969, the homosexual community began fighting back against the government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities. Despite being founded seven years later by Phil Price, a student at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of C ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

in 1976, ''OUT FRONT'' came on the heels of the Stonewall riots and became part of the

gay rights movement Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...

. Price saw a need for a voice for the LGBT community in Colorado and started the publication in his parents' basement. On June 5, 1981,

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

was first reported in the gay community in Los Angeles.Gottlieb MS (2006). . "Pneumocystis pneumonia--Los Angeles. 1981

Am J Public Health 96 (6): 980–1; discussion 982–3 For ''OUT FRONT'', this meant a period of time where a single issue of the publications didn't go by without a memorial for an AIDS victim. This

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious d ...

brought the LGBT community together, unifying their common grief and support of victims through the publication of breaking news on the search for diagnoses, treatment and a cure. Colorado Amendment 2, also known as ''

Romer v. Evans ''Romer v. Evans'', 517 U.S. 620 (1996), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case dealing with sexual orientation and state laws.. It was the first Supreme Court case to address gay rights since ''Bowers v. Hardwick'' (1986),. when the C ...

'', served as a major uniting factor for the gay community in 1996, when the Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional. Amendment 2 was passed in Colorado in 1992 and prevented any city, town or county in the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action from recognizing

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to p ...

citizens as a

protected class A protected group, protected class (US), or prohibited ground (Canada) is a category by which people qualified for special protection by a law, policy, or similar authority. In Canada and the United States, the term is frequently used in connec ...

. In other words, the legislation took away the ability to put in place non-discrimination laws in the state of Colorado, giving it the "hate state" reputation. Due to a strong activist base, the case was pushed to the Supreme Court, where it was overturned. Justice

Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Preside ...

wrote the majority opinion, stating that: :''"To the contrary, the amendment imposes a special disability upon those persons alone. Homosexuals are forbidden the safeguards that others enjoy or may seek without constraint."'' In the midst of the battle of Amendment 2, Price died in 1993 at the age of 39 as a victim of AIDS. He left Out Front to Greg Montoya, Jay Klein, and Jack Kelley. Kelley later died due to natural causes. The paper changed its name from ''OUT FRONT'' to ''Out Front Colorado'' at the suggestion of former advertising director David Beach and at the urging of former editor Madeline Ingraham in 1995 in hopes of reaching out on a national level. The name change proved to be highly successful. The name change of the publication also served to provide a niche for local LGBT news. During Jerry Cunningham's ownership, the title of the publication was changed back to the original OUT FRONT. The magazine celebrated its 44th Anniversary on April 2, 2020. The publication has had a web presence since 2006, creating a more versatile way of reaching information with some articles being only available either in print or on the website.

Content

Price started the publication from a political perspective, being "very in-your-face and rebellious".Interview with Matt Kailey, managing editor of Out Front, February 26, 2010 While the publication still publishes political information and supports candidates, news features and entertainment are the main components. The longevity of the publication has been, in parts, thanks to its niche writing and focus on the Colorado LGBT community. While nationwide issues are covered, the publication strives to find the local angle for their readers. The paper has covered in-depth news stories from around the region in the past such as the arrival of the

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

pandemic, the Colorado Amendment 2 controversy, and the murder of

Matthew Shepard Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Po ...

. The paper also publishes several Special Edition issues each year with themes and coverage of community events such as AIDS Walk Colorado, Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo, Aspen Gay Ski Week, Dining Out For Life, as well as an annual Holiday Gift Guide and New Year's issues. The largest issue based on circulation and page count is the Special Edition issue timed to coincide with PrideFest when that event takes place in Denver each June.Out Front
/ref> Year-round regular features in ''Out Front'' include commentary by drag comedian NuClea Waste, Gabby Gourmet restaurant reviews, an "Ask A Slut" advice column answered by a group of 8 local drag performers, and a satirical column on gay culture called Stuff Gay People Like.

Ownership

Greg Montoya and Jay Klein owned and managed ''OUT FRONT'' from the time between Phil Price's death in 1993 until early 2012, when Colorado resident Jerry Cunningham bought the tabloid and continued its operation. On October 30, 2020, Jerry Cunningham stepped back to focus on the non-profit pursuits of the OUT FRONT Foundation, as Maggie Phillips and Addison Herron-Wheeler became majority owners and co-publishers of the magazine.

Price and Distribution

''OUT FRONT'' is maintained through advertisement sales and is a free publication, distributed throughout the Denver Metro area as well as other parts of Colorado. An annual mail subscription can be bought for $39.97 from the website. It has a main circulation of 10,000 copies distributed at more than 250 locations in the Denver metropolitan area. ''OUT FRONT'' has a main readership of 50,000 readers.

External links

''OUT FRONT''

''OUT FRONT'' Facebook

References

{{American LGBT press LGBT in Colorado LGBT-related magazines published in the United States Mass media in Denver Magazines published in Colorado Magazines established in 1976