Lavender Magazine

3715 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN

The most recent and longest-lasting GLBT Publication in Minnesota issued its first publication on the heels of a remarkably similar publication, GAZE Magazine, that existed in the early 1990s.(1) Together, the two periodicals chronicle an incredible (and arguably unforeseen) effect of Minnesota's struggle for queer social acceptance—life in the mainstream.(2)

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 1 (6/9/1995) Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 31 (8/2/1996)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 53 (6/6/1997)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 92 (12/4/1998)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

That is not to suggest that Lavender has failed to adequately chronicle the continued struggles of queer Minnesotans; the publication dedicates a portion of its attention to the activities, successes, and failures of local organizations. Rather, the Minneapolis-based publication frames the LGBT experience within the lens of an LGBT lifestyle.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 119 (12/17/1999)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 137 (8/25-9/7/2000)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine,Issue 194(11/1-11/14/2002)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 202 (2/21-3/6/2002)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

Offering exposes on the latest fashion trends, interviews with queer celebrities, and information on exciting restaurants in the Upper Midwest region, the biweekly effectively captures the concerns of a D.I.N.K. (double-income-no-kids) way of life.(3) Lavender also includes a “Yellow Pages” directory, advice columns, horoscopes, and additional elements that one would expect to find in Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine, Details, and Out Magazine.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 222 (11/28-12/11/2003)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 240 (8/6-8/19/2004)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 252 (1/21-2/3/2005)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 291 (7/21/-78/3/2006)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

In part, Lavender’s overwhelming success is attributable to its adaptive focus. The publication’s first issue begged the question “What’s normal, anyway?” in 1995,(4) and one could argue that the magazine spent the rest of the decade redefining normalcy to accommodate queer people. Religion, sexual pleasure, travel, and sports—perhaps once under the control of the “heterosexual dollar”(5)—were claimed by Lavender in a quirky and appealing fashion.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 318 (8/3-8/16/2007)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine,Issue 336(4/11/-4/24/2008)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 1 (6/9/1995)

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  Lavender Magazine, Issue 384 (2/12-2/25/2010)Courtesy of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection.

Without a doubt, Lavender has simultaneously shaped and reflected Minnesota’s queer life in the 2000s. The magazine began to issue glossy pages and provoking covers—it continues to present competition with non-GLBT magazines. Lavender has an edge in this contest—like The Uptown Voice, The Gaily Planet, The GLC Voice, Equal Time, Focus Point, and TC GAZE before it, Lavender remains free to the public.

True to its form, the publication is accommodating new changes—issues are presently published physically and online, and Lavender, Inc. now hosts podcasts.

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(1) "TC Gaze" Collection." Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries.

(2)Urviashi Vaid wrote about queer mainstreaming in 1995, the same year that Lavender began printing., in Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation" New York: Anchor Books, 1995.

(3)The D.I.N.K. lifestyle: Harris, W.C. Queer Externalities: Hazardous Encounters in American Culture. New York: SUNY Press, 2009. Page 107.

(4) Lavender Magazine, Issue 1 (6/9/1995)

(5)Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl and Other Poems." San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1956. Page 14.

Part of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-1969), (1969-2010)