Letter of the week

A few weeks ago I read an issue of Dolly magazine (it has a target audience of 11-17 year olds).

I was pleasantly surprised to read an article, Best of 2008, where one of the couples selected for Best Couple was Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson. I thought that it could just be a one-off that they have been reported on by the magazine but was again pleasantly surprised when I found some articles about them on the Dolly website and by the positive commentary that accompanied most stories about the two women.

The articles have positive commentary like, We think they make a great couple! etc.
I think it’s great that they have reported about them just like they would about any heterosexual couple and as a bonus have praised them as a couple.

Another way that Dolly is portraying LGBT people in a positive light is that, for an upcoming issue, they are asking people who are related to LGBT people whether it be friend, mother, brother etc. to tell their story.

Both of these steps by Dolly, are in my opinion, a step forward when it comes to the coverage of LGBT people in mainstream media.

For LGBT youth it is so important there is coverage of LGBT people in magazines such as Dolly given that they have big readership numbers (Dolly has 300,000) and influence over young girls.

I am going to contact Dolly to commend them on their willingness to cover LGBT people and issues and given that it’s pretty likely they will receive an angry response from family groups, I think it would go a long way if sections of the gay media, such as the Star Observer, were to commend them.

-” Anna