LibGuides: LGBTQ+ History: Primary Sources &amp; Archives

Historical LGBTQ+ Magazines & Newspapers

Digital archives of selected early LGBTQ periodicals published in the United States

Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco)
Publication Date: 1971-2005

The Bay Area Reporter is the oldest continuously published lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer weekly newspaper in the United States.
BLK (Los Angeles)
Publication Date: August 1989

Created by Alan Bell in 1988, BLK Magazine aimed to be a source of community information and mainstream news for the Black LGBTQ community in Los Angeles. The Alan Bell Collection at the Broward County Library has a digital archive of BLK covers, but this is one of few fully digitized issues available.
The Furies
Publication Date: 1972-1973

Published by the Furies Collective, a communal lesbian group in Washington, D.C. that was established in the summer of 1971. More at Wikipedia
The Gay Alternative (Philadelphia)
Publication Date: 1972-1976

The Gay Alternative was a literary forum for gay expression created by a collective of individuals during the early years of gay liberation. This magazine began as a newsletter of the Gay Activists Alliance of Philadelphia. They hoped to provide information, opinion, and discussion regarding the many aspects of gay life in Philadelphia. The magazine was published in Philadelphia from December 1972 through April 1976.
Gay Community News (Boston)
Publication Date: 1974-1986

Eight Boston gays and lesbians started the newspaper in 1973 to create a community voice for gays and lesbians in the Boston area. In 1978, the Gay Community News became national in scope and distribution.
Gay Flames (New York)
Publication Date: 1970-1971

Set up by members of the Gay Liberation Front as a gay community newsletter in New York City to let the people know what was going on in the movement. It was a revolutionary publication stating: "We are gay and this society oppresses us for that reason. We feel that the only way we can become liberated is through revolution. The revolution we seek is not to replace one bureaucratic monster with another, but to give all power to the people and gay power to the gay people. Gay Flames will serve the gay community of NYC by letting you know the truth of what’s happening.".
Gay Liberator (Detroit)
Published from 1970-1976, the Gay Liberator reflects growing political awareness during an important time for the nation as a whole.
GPU News (Milwaukee)
Publication Date: 1971-1981

Monthly magazine that included coverage of local and national news, editorials, articles, book reviews, fiction and poetry.
The Ladder: A Lesbian Review (Los Angeles)
Publication Date: 1956-1972

The first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the US. The Ladder was the primary publication for the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization in the US. Also freely available at the Internet Archive, this version includes searchable full text + page images.
Lavender Woman (Chicago)
Publication Date: 1972-1975

There were 26 issues of Lavender Woman, published irregularly from 1971 to 1976. Lavender Woman was a collaborative newspaper aimed at voicing the concerns of many in the lesbian community, and also to be an outlet for those concerns.
Lesbian Connection (East Lansing, MI)
Publication Date: 1974-1989

A grassroots network forum "for, by and about lesbians" founded in 1974 by the lesbian-feminist collective Ambitious Amazons. Lesbian Connection is still being published monthly.
The Lesbian Tide (Los Angeles)
Publication Date: 1974-1980

Published by the Los Angeles chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis. It was the first lesbian periodical in the US to reach a national audience and the first US magazine to use the word "lesbian" in the title. More at Wikipedia
Mattachine Review (San Francisco)
Publication Date: 1955-1966

Founded in San Francisco in 1955 by members of the Mattachine Society, a homophile group that sought to gain acceptance by encouraging conformation to the standards of the dominant heterosexual society. Like ONE magazine, the Mattachine Review was aimed primarily at gay men and reached a circulation of one thousand.
New Gay Life (Philadelphia)
Publication Date: 1977-1978
ONE (Los Angeles)
Publication Date: 1954-1967

The first U.S. pro-gay publication, originally sold on the streets of Los Angeles for 25 cents. In October 1954, the U.S. Post Office Department declared the magazine "obscene" and refused to deliver it. ONE, Inc. brought a lawsuit in federal court, which it won in 1958. More at ONE Archives
Onyx: Black Lesbian Newsletter (California)
Publication Date: 1982-1984

Black Lesbian Newsletter, later titled Onyx, was published in San Francisco and, later, Berkeley from 1982-1984. The newsletter includes poems, drawings, political perspectives, photographs, book reviews, event listings, personals, and some business listings. The Online Archive of California collection guide provides more information about contents of individual issues, most of which are available digitally at the Internet Archive.
Outlines (Chicago)
Publication Date: 1980-1999
Philadelphia Gay News
Publication Date: 1976-1982

Founded in 1976, the mission of Philadelphia Gay News is to serve as a forum for LGBT community discussion, and to act as a platform for communicating LGBT issues with mainstream media. Philadelphia Gay News is still being published.
Sinister Wisdom
Publication Date: 1976-1996

A multicultural lesbian literary & art journal. Sinister Wisdom is still being published.
The Southern Voice (Atlanta)
Publication Date: 1988-2010

A significant resource for the LGBT community in the Southeast, providing in-depth information on topics such as the fight against AIDS, marriage equality, legal issues, workplace discrimination, and violence against gay individuals. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University the Atlanta History Center.
Washington Blade (Washington, DC)
Publication Date: 1969-1989

The Washington Blade has been Washington, D.C.’s principal LGBT newspaper since its first issue in October 1969. It began as a monthly news sheet and a replacement for the Mattachine Society of Washington’s newsletter of the 1950s and early 1960s. The Blade quickly grew, adding images and additional pages, and expanding its run to twice a month, and then weekly. The Blade covered current events from an LGBT perspective as well as LGBT life in D.C. and the social and political progress of the gay rights movement.

Mainstream Periodicals

American Periodicals
Find the full text of early articles on LGBTQ issues and culture, including Havelok Ellis's 1895 article "Sexual Inversion in Women" and Alfred Adler's 1917 "The Homosexual Problem."

Periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.

Part of the ProQuest Primary Sources Collection.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
If you want to find the earliest article in Time magazine on the gay rights movement, Readers' Guide Retrospective will have the details. Indexes articles from popular US & Canadian periodicals published between 1890 and 1982, covering current events & news, fine arts, fashion, education, business, sports, health, consumer affairs, etc.

Primary Source Collections with Significant LGBTQ+ Content

LGBT Thought and Culture
Books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day.

The collection illuminates the lives of lesbians, gays, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community with content including selections from The National Archives in Kew, materials collected by activist and publisher Tracy Baim from the mid-1980s through the mid-2000s, the Magnus Hirschfeld and Harry Benjamin collections from the Kinsey Institute, periodicals such as En la Vida and BLACKlines, select rare works from notable LGBT publishers including Alyson Books and Cleis Press, as well as mainstream trade and university publishers.

Part of the ProQuest Primary Sources Collection.

LGBT rights, gay rights, lesbians, transgender rights

Independent Voices: LGBT
This collection contains over 387,828 pages of independent alternative press, dating from the 1960s-1980s. This collection includes freely digitized versions of a number of publications dealt with LGBTQ+ issues and themes.

LGBTQ+ Archives with Digital Collections

ACT UP Oral History Project
A collection of interviews with surviving members of ACT UP New York the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. PDFs and some streaming video.
Comprehensive List of LGBTQ+ Libraries, Archives, and Museums
From Brown University's LGBTQ Center.
In the Life
The UCLA Film & Television Archive worked with the producers of “In the Life,” the longest running LGBT television news magazine, to create a digital portal to all of their television episodes and some contextual materials.
Lesbian Herstory Archives Digital Collections
The Lesbian Herstory Archives has the world's largest collection of materials by and about Lesbians. Digital collections include audio, video and photographs. Enjoy a taste of this collection by visiting their Online Photo Sampler.
LGBT Digital Archives on the Web
A state-by-state listing of freely available full text archives of the LGBTQ+ press from before January 2005.
New York Public Library Gay & Lesbian History
Digital collections document the gay rights movement of the 1970s & 1980s.
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries is the largest repository of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) materials in the world. Founded in 1952, ONE Archives currently houses over two million archival items including periodicals, books, film, video and audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records and personal papers. A small subset of this material has been digitized and is available online - search the collection here.