LPI Media (formerly Liberation Publications Inc.) was the largest gay and lesbian publisher in the United States. The company targeted LGBT communities and published such magazines, books, and websites, with its magazines alone having more than 8.2 million copies distributed each year. The Advocate and Out magazines were the two largest circulation LGBT magazines in the United States, each with corresponding websites, Advocate.com and OUT.com. Additional publications included Out Traveler, HIV Plus, and LGBT-penned titles through Alyson Books making it the "largest publisher of gay and lesbian print publications" and thus the largest print voice of the LGBT communities, including transgender and to a lesser degree bisexual people. They were also parent owners of Specialty Publications, which produces adult (pornographic) publications MEN, formerly Advocate Men, FreshMen, Unzipped, and [2]. Specialty Publications was one of the largest gay adult erotica web and video production companies in the world. History Liberation Publications began with a police raid at the Black Cat bar in Los Angeles in 1966, prompting a handful of gay men to start a mimeographed sheet newsletter for the gay community. This grew into The Advocate magazine the following year and remained the only US LGBT magazine for nearly 25 years. In February 2000, Liberation acquired Out Publishing Inc., which publishes Out and HIV Plus magazines.<ref name="Merger to link, NYTIMES">THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Merger to Link Gay Print and Internet Outlets] By ALEX KUCZYNSKI, The New York Times. 23 March 2000. Retrieved 29 December 2007.</ref> Then president and chief executive of Liberation, James Franklin, said the deal would "move the print properties into the electronic arena" and added that the Internet was popular with gay and lesbian readers because of "the closet factor." PlanetOut attempted in March 2000 to merge with LPI, but this was called off in March 2001.Out Traveler, a magazine spin-off of Out, launched in 2003. In November 2005, LPI merged with Planet Out, which mainly has developed online properties to become the world's largest media company targeting LGBT communities. LPI's "solid accounts list of fashion, retail and consumer packaged goods advertisers" was cited among its strong selling points. Criticism of the merger centered on two aspects: that a consolidation of national media outlets of a minority community is unlikely to add diversity of voices; and that the publications were established and supported in an effort to secure human rights for gays and lesbians but now are instead