Gay Community News (Boston)

Gay Community News was a weekly journal published in Boston from 1973 to 1992 by the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation. Designed as a resource for the LGBT community, GCN reported a wide variety of Gay & Lesbian-related news. The paper's influence was such that it enjoyed a "national reach that was considered the movement’s 'paper of record' throughout the ’70s, and whose alumni at one point occupied so many leadership roles around the country that they were called the 'GCN mafia'."^[1]

Founded as a local newsletter early in the struggle for Gay liberation, the journal was soon expanded into a major newspaper with an international readership. The journal saw itself as part an important vehicle for debating gay rights, feminism, antiracism, multiculturalism, class struggle, prisoners' rights, AIDS, and other causes.

The paper's political stance was reflected throughout its reporting. The journal often served as a place in which liberals and radicals in LGBT groups debated conflicting agendas. An article entitled "Gay Revolutionary", published in 1987, led to claims from the conservative right that the journal promoted a "homosexual agenda" to destroy heterosexuality and traditional values.^[2]

Paper Attributes

The premier issue of Gay Community News was published out of The Charles Street Meeting House on June 17, 1973 as a two-page mimeograph, at first entitled "Gay Community Newsletter".^[1][3] The newspaper was originally designed as a tabloid-style publication. The first issue was loosely organized into sections titled Events, Volunteers, Needs, Notices, and Directory. The editors introduce the very first newsletter by stating:

There has been a long standing need in the Boston gay community for improved communication between the various gay organizations and gay individuals. The lack of coverage in the "straight" press has added to this problem of getting necessary information to our community. Gay groups have attempted to overcome this problem by newsletters to their members, but this has led to duplicated efforts with vast portions of the community left uninformed events until after they have passed."The Gay Community Newsletter is meant to solve this problem. The purpose will be to list all of the events and information of interest to the gay community in one publication. This will not be a literary publication. We are fortunate to already have several serving the community. We feel weekly publication will be necessary to fill this need for quick current information.

On March 8, 1975, the newspaper made two major changes: they began distributing color copies, and publishers expanded distribution to à regional level. In 1978, they went national.^[3]

Gay Revolutionary Article

In 1987, Michael Swift published an article in the Gay Community News entitled, “Gay Revolutionary”.^[4] The editors at the Gay Community News requested that Swift write an article as satirical proof of the so-called “Gay Agenda” that conservative right wing Christians were establishing. Thirty years after the articles publishing date, conservative religious groups continue to quote “Gay Revolutionary”, but omit the crucial first line of the piece, "This essay is an outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor." The original article has come to be known as The Homosexual Manifesto.

Prisoner Project

The Prisoner Project was initiated in 1975, coming as a result of the staff member Mike Riegle,^[5] who responded to letters sent by prisoners to the Gay Community News and granted them free paper subscriptions. The project grew to a larger scale, with the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation sending prisoners books, providing legal assistance, and receiving and publishing letters and about homophobia, racism, and sexism in prisons. In 1977, the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation and the National Gay Task Force joined together to sue the federal prison system and won the right for prisoners to receive gay publications in jail.^[3] Although the verdict came in 1980, the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation continued to spend subsequent years advocating on behalf of prisoners who were denied copies of the Gay Community News and other LGBTQ publications. Starting in 1981, a regular prisoners column was published in every edition of the Gay Community News.

End of the Paper

By 1991, the Paper "was the oldest, continuously published gay newspaper that had a national audience."^[3] They had ten people on staff and were publishing issues of 20 pages. In spite of "a strong readership," they had financial difficulties. As a result, they stopped publishing on July 3, 1992. The revived Gay Community News was published bimonthly as a 28 to 32-page tabloid style publication. In April 1993, the first new edition of the paper was distributed at the Gay Pride March in Washington DC. The final issue of the Gay Community News was published in 1999.^[3]

Regular contributor Amy Hoffman wrote of her time at the paper in her 2007 book An Army of Ex-Lovers: My life at the Gay Community News. ^[6]

References

External links

• The Bromfield Street Educational Foundation records, 1968-1999 (bulk 1985-1993) are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.