Newspapers – Part 3 – LGBTQ Periodicals
Hopefully, our ancestors didn’t appear in the news because of a police raid, but in their local gay community paper. Many LGBTQ Newspapers have started since Stonewall.
Here are newspapers and magazines serving the LGBTQ community.
Two of the earliest LGBTQ publications were from
- The Mattachine Society – was founded in 1950 by Harry Hay and a group of friends in Los Angeles. Soon there were chapters in other U.S. cities.
- And The Ladder was a publication from the Daughter of Billits. A lesbian civil and political rights organization found in San Francisco in 1955 by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons.
The table shows the name of the paper, City or area of coverage, the date it started – if there is no end date, then it is still in publication, and where you can find back issues online.
UC Berkeley has an extensive collection of online historic LGBTQ periodical, most of which are no longer in print.
ADZ gayzette | San Francisco, Calif.: K/DEL Enterprises [etc.], 1970- |
Agapé and action | Berkeley, Calif.: Committee of Concern for Homosexuals. |
Amazon quarterly | Oakland, Calif.: Amazon Press, 1972-1975. |
ARC news (Association for Responsible Citizenship) | [Sacramento]: The Association, 1966- |
BAR (San Francisco, Calif.) | San Francisco: Benro Enterprises, Inc., 1971- |
Bar rag | San Francisco, Calif.: [Guy Strait], 1967. |
Bridge (San Jose, Calif.) | San Jose, Calif. [etc.] : GLF, |
California voice (San Francisco, Calif.: 1983) | San Francisco: Paul D. Hardman [etc.], 1983- |
Citizen’s news (San Francisco, Calif.) | San Francisco, Calif.; Guy & Associates, 1964-1967. |
Coming up (San Francisco, Calif.) | San Francisco: [s.n.], 1979-1989. |
CRH newsletter | San Francisco: C.R.H., 1967- |
Cruise news and world report | San Francisco, Calif.: [Guy Strait], 1965-1967. |
Dykes and gorgons | Berkeley, Calif.: [s.n.], |
East Bay gay men’s newsletter | Oakland, Calif.: Oakland Gay Men’s Political Action Group, |
Free particle | San Francisco: [s.n.], |
GAA lifeline | San Francisco: The Alliance, |
Gay Bay newsletter | San Francisco: S.F. Committee for Homosexual Freedom, |
Gay focus magazine | San Francisco: California/South Carolina/New Mexico Corp., 1981-1982. |
Gay people’s newsletter | Berkeley: [s.n.], |
Gay pride crusader | San Francisco: [Crusader Press], 1972-1981. |
Gay Students’ Union | Berkeley, Calif.: The Union, 1970. |
Gay sunshine. | [Berkeley, Calif.: Gay Sunshine, 1970-1981] |
Gay switchboard | Berkeley, Calif.: [s.n.], |
Gay voice | Sacramento: [s.n.], |
GSU newsletter | [Berkeley: GSU], |
Haight Ashbury free press | San Francisco: [Guy Strait, 1967] |
I am | San Francisco: Emmaus House, 1971- |
Kalendar | San Francisco, Calif.: Mecca Publications, 1972- |
Lavender reader | [Santa Cruz, Calif.: s.n.], 1986- |
LCE news | San Francisco, Calif.: [Guy Strait], 1961-1967. |
Lesbian voices | Campbell, CA: Sisters of Sappha, Lesbian-Feminist Alliance of Santa Clara County, 1974- |
Mama Bears news and notes. | Oakland, Calif.: Mama Bears, |
Mattachine newsletter (San Francisco, Calif.) | San Francisco: San Francisco Area Council of the Mattachine Society, [1955]- |
The Effeminist | Berkeley, Calif.: [s.n.], |
The Gay radical rag | San Francisco: [s.n.], 1970. |
The Ladder | San Francisco, Calif.: [s.n.], 1956-1972. |
The Lavender letter | San Francisco: Gay Alliance of S.F., |
Addendum:
A blog reader let me know of another online resource for old LGBTQ Periodicals.
Check out The Independent Voices Collection for backissues from the following titles.
- Come Out!
- Common Lives/Lesbian Lives
- Conditions
- Detroit Gay Liberator
- Detroit Liberator, The
- DYKE
- Dykes & Gorgons
- Furies, The
- Gay Alternative, The
- Gay Flames
- Gay Liberator, The
- Lavender Vision
- Lavender Woman
- Lesbian Connection
- Lesbian Tide, The (1974)
- Motive (Feminist)
- New Gay Life
- ONE
- Open Road, The
- Outlook
- Philadelphia Gay News
- Phoenix, The
- Sinister Wisdom
- Tangents
- Tide, The

