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First, People does not shy away from covering the small coterie of openly gay celebrities—Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, George Michael, and Rupert Everett. And People has dutifully followed the bouncing ball of commitment from Ellen and Anne to Anne and Coley to Ellen and Alexandra to Ellen and Portia to…okay, we’re getting dizzy and need to sit down.

But unlike the Enquirer, People’s coverage of openly gay celebrities is matter-of-fact, not judgmental--no different than their coverage of the antics of Paris Hilton, or “Bennifer,” or that paragon of heterosexual virtue, Britney Spears.

People also covers the current hot-button issues--gay marriage, gay adoption--and they usually do it without having to quote some anti-gay bigot making an appeal to blatant prejudice, in order to provide journalistic “balance.” Teen People, their counterpart publication for teenagers, frequently covers gay teen and even transgendered issues.

But People also consistently does something else that we think is REALLY cool. When they do a profile on your average Joe or Jane--the man with the largest collection of ships-in-a-bottle in America, for example--and he happens to have a partner of fifteen years, People says so, clearly and openly. And they provide the obligatory picture of the man and said partner awkwardly seated together amid all their thousands of ships-in-a-bottle.

For thirty years, People has been acting as if gay people were just, well, people.

Compare this to the coverage of most daily newspapers. Even now, when gay people appear at all, it’s often the most outrageous participant in this year’s gay pride march. Even now, the same-sex partner of the owner of some fabulous local garden is often white-washed from the story. Even now, most newspapers include not a single openly gay columnist.

Thankfully, People’s efforts have not gone unrecognized by the gay and lesbian community. GLAAD has frequently nominated both People and Teen People in their various print categories.

It’s true that People won’t be winning any Pulitzer Prizes any time soon. Likewise, you’ll learn more from them about Pamela Anderson’s breast implants than you will about global warming (we suspect the two things are related).

But for gays in the print media, things are changing at last, and People Magazine led the way. Like it or not, this is a noteworthy part of the Big, Gay Picture.

Two Cheap Bastards are Brent Hartinger and Michael Jensen, partners since 1992. Brent is the author of the gay teen novel, Geography Club, and its sequel, The Order of the Poison Oak (brenthartinger.com). Michael Jensen is the author of the gay historical novels Frontiers and Firelands (michaeljensen.com).

Read previous editions of The Big Gay Picture

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