Gay Advertising’s Long March Out of the Closet

Same-sex imagery is much older than you think

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James Cash Penney, the son of a Baptist minister and founder of one of America’s enduring retail empires, probably rolled over in his grave.

Tucked in the glossy pages of JCPenney’s 2012 Father’s Day catalog was the kind of happy family scene one would expect to find there—only this particular photo featured a real-life same-sex couple, Cooper Smith and Todd Koch of Dallas, having a playful moment with their kids. At a time when gay marriage has been sanctioned in a dozen U.S.

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