In Attitude magazine, Homosexuality is represented in a number of ways and the target audience of Attitude, the LGBT+ community may take a number of different readings to the magazine depending on who they are.
Homosexuality is discussed and shown in a number of contexts whether that be discussing homophobia, the political side of things to do with gay rights and marriage, discussion of it in the media, same-sex couples and gay people themselves. Attitude being a magazine (and website which is what we're looking at) is targeted towards gay men so it shows homosexuality as something which should be accepted in society and should be celebrated due to the oppression gay men have suffered in the past and continue to suffer to this day in many parts of the world.
For example any articles about homophobia show the attackers or homophobes in the wrong and labels them as 'trolls' and labelling one attack in particular as 'vicious' therefore showing gay people as victims and that they are still treated as unequal.
We can apply Stuart Hall's Shared Conceptual Map to the representations of homosexuality. Attitude has representations within it that imply the audience has a shared understanding and appreciation of the LGBT community's values and ideologies. The representations of celebrities as positive role models who give there voice and support to further the LGBT cause, e.g LGBT celebrities like Lady Gaga, Tom Daley and Gok Wan. Also, the representation of 'real' people and there experience with homophobia. There are also sexual stereotypes applied to gay men within the community which are seen on the websites.
Furthermore, it could be said that homosexuality is overly sexualised on the site as compared to how heterosexuality would be in other media due to 'boys' section. It could be argued that this goes against what the LGBT movement stands for and that it focuses on the sexual side of things and not activism or equality.
I think the approach on the Attitude website is a lot more pluralistic as it goes against the status quo and it shows that media is diverse with a wide range of available choices for consumers due to it being targeted towards a niche audience (mostly gay men). Homosexuality is represented in a range of ways and there isn't this one single stereotype or representation they focus on. Many of the articles aren't what you'd tend to see in mainstream media and are very specific to the theme of the magazine and the fact that something like Attitude magazine is out there proves pluralism.
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