Includes bibliographical references (p. 240-252) and index.

Includes filmography.

Introduction : placing the self within the frame: Contexts, discourse and life story ; Identity and identification ; Cohesion and thematic framework ; Conclusion -- New storytelling : transitions from the past: Outside the literary, and towards the vernacular frame ; Transitions in new storytelling : rejecting the myth ; Audience identification with iconic performers and the relay of narratives ; BBC radio and male homosexual ; Gore Vidal : the performance and the partnership ; k.d. lang and Waymon Hudson : role models, vernacular voices and political forces ; k.d. lang : establishing the arena ; Waymon Hudson: the personal self and the political frame ; Conclusion -- Gay identity and self-reflexivity: Christopher Isherwood, storytelling and self-reflexivity ; Stereotypes, archetypes and The green bay tree ; Social construction, Oscar Wilde and 'queer' ; Quentin Crisp and The naked civil servant ; Trial by media : Peter Wildebrood and testimony ; Ellen DeGeneres and George Michael : therapy and subversion ; Conclusion -- Community, history and transformation: The discursive gay community ; History, the unified subject and postmodernity ; Transformation ; Victim and Dirk Bogarde : intended identification ; Armistead Maupin and Sarah Waters : popular frames ; Tony Kushner and Angels in America : community and transformation ; Conclusion -- Factual media space : intimacy, participation and therapy: Factual media space : Joshua Gamson, the talk show and vulnerability ; Oppositional public sphere, intimacy and emotion ; Russell Harty and Dirk Bogarde : signposting, domesticity and humanity ; Peter Adair and Pedro Zamora : whole person learning and AIDS ; The ultimate Brokeback forum : therapy and agency ; Conclusion -- Commodity and family: Family values and Debra Chasnoff ; Commodity : use and exchange ; Economy of narratives, shared experience and the real ; Debra Chasnoff : school, narratives and humanist education ; Derek Jarman and Russell T. Davies : domesticity, exchange and transformation ; Derek Jarman : domesticity under construction ; Russell T. Davies : commodity identity ; Conclusion -- Teenage identity and ritual: Gay teen identity : similar experiences and expectations ; Ritual and performance : liminality, participation and antistructure ; Jonathan Harvey, Beautiful thing and reflective realism ; Todd Haynes and Alan Bennett : gay youth narratives in film ; Coming out to class and LGB teens ; The Gay Youth Corner : affirmation, disclosure and agency ; Conclusion -- Other storytelling and the new frontier: New identifications within the queer diaspora ; Dangerous living : other storytelling, colonialism and the new frontier ; Nature and instinct in Before night falls ; Uruguay, Two to tango and Gay on the Cape ; Out in Iran and Jihad for love : civil rights, family and belief ; Conclusion -- Conclusion: Fragmentation and cohesion.

"This book offers a critical introduction to gay and lesbian identity within the media, focusing on the potential of 'new storytelling'. Foregrounding case studies which are taken principally from television, film and online media, a central focus is placed upon the narrative potential of individual storytellers who as self-reflexive producers, writers, performers and (active) audiences generate new discourses for gay and lesbian identity."--BOOK JACKET.