Lavender Magazine

From OutHistory
Jump to navigationJump to search

3715 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN (1995-Present)


OPEN ENTRY: This entry is open to collaborative creation by anyone with evidence, citations, and analysis to share, so no particular, named creator is responsible for the accuracy and cogency of its content. Please use this entry's Comment section at the bottom of the page to suggest improvements about which you are unsure. Thanks.

The most recent and longest-lasting GLBT Publication in Minnesota issued its first publication on the heels of a 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)



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.



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.



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.



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.



This entry is part of:

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



(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.