Panel discussion. Evan Wolfson, Fellow of the Wolfson Center for National Affairs, moderator. Panelists: Lisa Duggan, Josh Gamson, Richard Goldstein, and Suzanna Danuta Walters.

Typified by the public outing of Ellen DeGeneres and news coverage of the vicious murder of Matthew Shepard, gay lives have definitely become part of American public life, visible everywhere, from the White House and Congress to Disney's Magic Kingdom. But are gays seen without being known? Is the new visibility a sign of social acceptance or mere window dressing that obscures the dogged persistence of discrimination? Professor Walters, the author of All the Rage and Materials Girl: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory, leads a critical discussion of the meaning of gay visibility in contemporary American life.

Inscription: Gay Visibility / original / 12-6-01.