33-605: Gay Community News may refer to: Gay Community News (Boston) Gay Community News (Dublin) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Gay Community News . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gay_Community_News&oldid=1023446723 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
66-623: A " proselytizing air" about it. He suggested they wanted to convert heterosexuals to the LGBT world, so they could "develop a sense of gay pride". He argues that the name of the publication itself was designed to be objectionable to the "straight world of heterosexuals", and that the name celebrates faggots, "as the writers define themselves". Raymond Jean-Frontain wrote that Fag Rag often included provocative photographs of men bending over or spreading their legs wide open "in an invitation to participate in ass fucking as an act of revolution". He states
99-502: A bookstore across the hall, was also destroyed. Both publications were forced out of the Bromfield Street office; GCN moved to 167 Tremont Street until 1992 when it temporarily ceased publication. The Boston Fire Department Arson Squad investigated the incident, and many staff members of the paper believed the fire to be arson. The building was set on fire by a group of firemen, policemen and security guards, who had set
132-432: A coed organization with both gay men and lesbians, with half of the periodical devoted to men, and the other half to women. After a few issues though, the lesbians left to start their own publication. After they left, the men debated titles for their new publication, such as: Surrender Dorothy and Kumquat Times , before settling on Fag Rag , which Mitzel said was "to the point". Shively described Fag Rag as offering up
165-400: A collection of "sexual liberation, anarchism , hippie love, drugs, peace, maoism , marxism , rock and roll, folk song , cultural separatist, feminist , effeminist , tofu/brown rice, communal living , urban junkie, rural purist, nudist , leather , high camp drag , gender fuck drag , poetry, essays and pictures". They reported on multiple LGBT topics, including: gay Vietnam servicemen,
198-498: 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. Although
231-500: A number of fires in the city. According to testimony from two of the arsonists, the arson ring set over 200 fires in 1982 and 1983, mostly in Boston. They claimed their motive was to scare Boston voters into repealing Proposition 21, a state tax-limiting measure which would lay off or freeze hiring of firefighters. The group of arsonists were ultimately held responsible for the destruction of more than $ 50 million worth of property, and at
264-513: 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. The Prisoner Project was initiated in 1975, coming as a result of the staff member Mike Riegle, who responded to letters sent by prisoners to the Gay Community News and granted them free newspaper subscriptions. The project grew to
297-543: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Gay Community News (Boston) Gay Community News was an American weekly newspaper published in Boston , Massachusetts from 1973 to 1999. Designed as a resource for the LGBT community , the newspaper reported a wide variety of gay and lesbian -related news. Founded as a collectively-run, local newsletter, early in
330-408: The Gay Community News entitled "Gay Revolutionary". The newspaper's editors had 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 article's publishing date, conservative religious groups continue to quote "Gay Revolutionary", but omit the crucial first line of the piece, "This essay
363-420: The '70s, and whose alumni at one point occupied so many leadership roles around the country that they were called the 'GCN mafia'". The newspaper's political stance was reflected throughout its reporting. It 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
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#1732794071688396-564: The Cuban gay scene, gay senior citizens, the gay community with special needs, sex workers, and interracial LGBT relationships. They also had the standard fare for a gay newspaper; local news, editorials, poems, artwork, short stories and cartoons. The first issue argued for gay men not to be embarrassed or ashamed when called "cocksucker", but to wear the moniker proudly. The periodical refused advertisements, claiming ads were “bribery and ugly", so they relied on being funded by donations, sales and
429-440: The arsonists, Gregg Bemis and Robert Groblewski, the arson ring set over 200 fires in 1982 and 1983, mostly in Boston. They claimed their motive was to scare Boston voters into repealing Proposition 21, a state tax-limiting measure which would lay off or freeze hiring of firefighters. The ringleader of the group, Donald Stackpole, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. The group of arsonists were ultimately held responsible for
462-461: 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,
495-485: The destruction of more than $ 50 million worth of property, and at the time, the arson case was considered to be the largest in state or federal history. In October 1982, The Body Politic reported that a right-wing paramilitary group identifying themselves as the 'Werewolves' had put up flyers in the Boston region alleging they were responsible for the fire. In addition, they threatened to "follow up" by killing lesbians and gays. Jonah Raskin opined that Fag Rag had
528-545: The first known LGBT Native author to publish openly queer writings in the United States, contributed poems to the newspaper. They started out publishing with the intentions of a regular quarterly basis, but as the years passed it became sporadic, with issues 30 through 39 being one special 12th anniversary special. The publication ceased operations in 1987. In his Fag Rag interview, Gore Vidal famously called Truman Capote "a Republican housewife from Kansas with all
561-620: The first new edition of the paper was distributed at the gay pride march in Washington, D.C. The final issue of the Gay Community News was published in 1999. Fag Rag Fag Rag was an American gay men 's newspaper, published from 1971 until circa 1987, with issue #44 being the last known edition. The publishers were the Boston -based Fag Rag Collective, which consisted of radical writers, artists and activists. Notable members were Larry Martin, Charley Shively, Michael Bronski , Thom Nickels , and John Mitzel . In its early years
594-415: The intermittent government grant. The volunteer staff would gather in the basement of a local book store, where editorial judgements were made as a group. They made a conscious decision not to showcase writings that demonstrated approval towards, "God, family, state or other oppressive institutions". Bronski, who started in 1972, described their gatherings as “fun and gossipy". They also had problems getting
627-506: The newspaper made two major changes: it began distributing color copies, and publishers expanded distribution to a regional level. In 1978, the membership of Gay Community News voted to become a national newspaper in both its focus and distribution. In the early morning of July 7, 1982, a fire broke out at the paper's office at 22 Bromfield Street. The entire office was destroyed, along with that of Fag Rag , another publication to whom GCN subletted part of their office. Glad Day Bookshop ,
660-414: The newspaper promoted a " homosexual agenda " to destroy heterosexuality and traditional values. The collective published the paper once per week from June 1973 to July 1992, when it temporarily ceased publication. It was then revived with a much smaller staff of new editors and student journalists, who published issues sporadically until its last issue in 1999. The premier issue of Gay Community News
693-476: The newspaper published. As Shively tells it, one press shop informed him it couldn’t print Fag Rag on the same printing press they used to print Bibles. In 1972, they started the Good Gay Poets Press, which was a pun on Walt Whitman ’s label as the 'Good Gray Poet'. Shively saw the 'Poets' as a pathway for authors to have freedom to write "whatever and however" they wanted to. Maurice Kenny ,
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#1732794071688726-468: The newspaper refused to "keep hidden what society was determined to control" through censorship, and that the men in these photos illustrated the "world quite literally turned upside down". Jim Downs opined that Shively "wrote himself into history, becoming part of the historical record and embedding his perspective in the public memory that would dictate the course of gay history for the next few decades". New Hampshire governor Meldrim Thomson described
759-445: The paper did not solicit advertisements from gay bars, which was a popular source of revenue for queer newspapers at the time. In another anomaly for its genre, GCN employed and wrote for an audience of both gay men and lesbians. During this time, most queer publications either focused on one group or the other, but GCN was one of a few exceptions along with Toronto’s The Body Politic . In 1987, Michael Swift published an article in
792-572: The paper was founded, each word in our name, Gay Community News had contained within it an entire political statement: All of this was taking place during a time when even the word "gay" was still controversial. "Gay" had been adopted as a unifying term by radical groups like the Gay Liberation Front , but the mainstream press still used the term " homosexual ", when they would discuss the community at all. The New York Times , for example, continued to use "homosexual", refusing to use
825-542: The prejudices," and described Norman Mailer as "a VFW commander in Schenectady." The Fag Rag collective shared offices with the Gay Community News . On July 7, 1982, the building shared by them was set on fire by a group of firemen, policemen and security guards, who had set a number of fires in the city. The fire destroyed all back issues of GCN and Fag Rag . According to testimony from two of
858-439: The struggle for gay liberation , it was soon expanded into a major newspaper with an international readership. The publication saw itself as part an important vehicle for debating gay rights , feminism , antiracism , multiculturalism , class struggle , prisoners' rights , AIDS , and other causes. The newspaper's influence was such that it enjoyed a "national reach that was considered the movement's 'paper of record' throughout
891-521: The subscription list was between 400 and 500, with an additional 4,500 copies sold on newsstands and bookstores or given away. During its run, Fag Rag published interviews with, and writing by, prominent gay and bisexual authors including William S. Burroughs , Allen Ginsberg , John Giorno , Christopher Isherwood , John Wieners , Arthur Evans , Allen Young , Maurice Kenny , Gerard Malanga , John Rechy , Ned Rorem , and Gore Vidal . The newspaper originally started out as Lavender Vision ,
924-424: The time, the arson case was considered to be the largest in state or federal history. As a result of the fire, much documentation from the paper’s first ten years was lost. Gay Community News was established and operated as a collective. At first, most major decisions were made by votes of the entire membership, though by 1978 it had moved to a committee structure for things like hiring new editors. “Membership”
957-484: 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 . Concerning the naming of the publication, Amy Hoffman , in Army of Ex-Lovers , writes, In 1973, when
990-457: 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
1023-442: The word "gay" until 1987. By 1991, the newspaper "was the oldest, continuously published gay newspaper that had a national audience." It had ten people on staff and was publishing issues of 20 pages. In spite of "a strong readership", it had financial difficulties. As a result, it 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,
Gay Community News - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-495: Was defined very broadly, and local readers and members of the queer community were encouraged to assist in the paper’s production. For example, every Friday evening, volunteers known as “Friday folders” would come to the GCN offices to assist in stuffing the papers into envelopes to be mailed to subscribers. GCN was primarily funded through subscriptions and through advertising from local queer businesses. Unlike most others in its genre,
1089-527: Was published out of the Charles Street Meeting House on June 17, 1973, as a two-page mimeograph, at first titled "Gay Community Newsletter". In less than a year, Gay Community News developed from a two-page mimeograph to an eight-page, tabloid-style newsprint, and moved its office to 22 Bromfield Street. The first issue was loosely organized into sections titled Events, Volunteers, Needs, Notices, and Directory. The editors introduced
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