Charlene E. Cothran is an American journalist and the publisher of the magazines ''Venus'' and the defunct ''Kitchen Table News'' (not to be confused with the feminist, activist publishing company ''Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press'').
Cothran founded ''Venus'' in 1995 in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, Georgia. Cothran, a former
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
and
gay rights activist
A list of notable LGBT rights activists who have worked to advance LGBT rights by political change, legal action or publication. Ordered by country, alphabetically.
Argentina
* Claudia Castrosín Verdú, she and her partner were the first les ...
, tailored ''Venus'' to the interests of
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
people of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n descent, especially
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
lesbians.
Following a
religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
to Christianity in 2006,
Cothran changed the editorial policy of ''Venus'', and began to promote what is popularly called the
ex-gay movement through the magazine. Cothran claims that her target audience remains the same. Cothran's abrupt renunciation of her activist political views in favor of evangelical proclamations sparked a campaign by the gay community resulting in the loss of advertising revenue.
Cothran went on to form The Evidence Ministry, Inc., an
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
mission encouraging gays to
renounce homosexuality.
References
External links
The Evidence Ministry, Inc.*
*
American women journalists
People self-identified as ex-gay
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
African-American publishers (people)
American publishers (people)
American magazine publishers (people)
American Christians
21st-century African-American people
21st-century African-American women
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