Time, April 23, 1979: "How Gay Is Gay?"

Overview

The April 23, 1979 issue of TIME included the cover story "How Gay Is Gay?" under the magazine's Sexes section. TIME's own issue archive identifies it as a cover story about gay men and women making progress toward equality, and UNT Digital Library preserves a related digitized copy of the cover and article pages. This is not a children's book, but it belongs in the collection as context. The same year, Jane Severance's When Megan Went Away entered children's-book history as an early picture book about a lesbian-parent family. The periodical helps visitors see the national media environment in which such books were appearing.^{[1][2][3][5][9][10]}

Mainstream Media Context

TIME's issue archive frames "How Gay Is Gay?" as a cover story about progress toward equality for gay men and women. That framing is important for the collection because it shows gay rights entering mainstream national magazine discourse in 1979. The issue does not explain same-sex parenting for children. Instead, it records the adult public language, political vocabulary, and social attention that formed the background against which early LGBTQ-family books circulated.^[2][3][4]

Same-Year Children's-Book Context

The local catalog links the issue to When Megan Went Away, published the same year. That connection is not about direct influence; it is about historical atmosphere. A national magazine was asking how American culture understood gay visibility, while a feminist small press was publishing a child-facing story about a mother's female partner leaving. Read together, the objects make 1979 visible at two scales: mass-media discourse and small-press children's publishing.^{[1][9][10][2]}

Cover Afterlife

The issue's cover has a preservation trail beyond ordinary magazine indexing. UNT Digital Library describes a torn cover and article pages in the John Thomas Papers, while the Smithsonian records the cover art within the National Portrait Gallery's TIME cover-art holdings. These records help visitors understand the periodical as a material and visual object. The cover was not only read; it later became something archives and museums could collect, describe, and display.^[5][6][7]

Periodical In A Book Collection

A magazine issue in a children's-book collection can seem out of place until the collection is read historically. The Tarpey-Schwed materials document representation, access, controversy, and the social world around books for children with LGBTQ parents. Periodicals can supply that social world directly. This issue helps situate books not as isolated stories but as objects made and read during periods of public argument, legal change, and changing visibility.^{[1][2][8][11]}

Timeline

1. 1978Preceding political momentTIME's later cover-history feature places the 1979 cover story shortly after the assassination of Harvey Milk.^[4]
2. April 23, 1979TIME issueTIME published the issue with "How Gay Is Gay?" as a cover story in the Society section.^[2][3]
3. 1979When Megan Went AwayOpen Library records Jane Severance's When Megan Went Away as a 1979 Lollipop Power publication.^[9]
4. 2013Cover-history retrospectiveTIME later included the 1979 issue in a history of gay-rights-related TIME covers.^[4]
5. 2022Digital preservationUNT Digital Library added its related digitized periodical object in July 2022.^[5]

Periodical Record

The public trail combines TIME's issue archive, article record, cover image, and archival copies.

Citation

Time, April 23, 1979: "How Gay Is Gay?". TIME Magazine. TIME, 1979. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-175.

Sources

Image from UNT Digital Library, UNT Libraries Special Collections.

1. Local collection catalog record for Time, April 23, 1979 · catalog
2. TIME issue archive, April 23, 1979, Vol. 113 No. 17 · periodical
3. TIME article, Sexes: How Gay Is Gay? · periodical
4. TIME cover-history feature, How Gay Is Gay? · article
5. UNT Digital Library, Time Magazine cover featuring How Gay Is Gay? · archive
6. Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery record for How Gay Is Gay? · museum
7. Georgia State University ArchivesSpace record for the TIME issue · archive
8. Office of the Historian reference to the April 23, 1979 TIME cover story · government
9. Open Library record for When Megan Went Away · library
10. Mombian retrospective on When Megan Went Away · article
11. Mechanics Institute, Special Collections · institutional
12. Google Books record for Daddy's Roommate · library
13. Publishers Weekly review of Daddy's Roommate · review