Everything is local: How LGBTQ+ media amplified the movement
I was 21 years old when I walked into the offices of Chicago’s GayLife newspaper in the spring of 1984. Fresh out of journalism school, I had just learned about gay media and was excited that there might be a career ahead for an aspiring lesbian journalist.
I had been afraid that being out would limit my choices — and it did. Fortunately, the only choice was the right fit for me.
When I started 40 years ago, I had no idea that 60 years prior, a postal worker named Henry Gerber joined forces with a few brave men to launch the country’s first gay-rights group, the Society for Human Rights, and the nation’s first known gay newsletter, Friendship & Freedom.
The men were soon arrested, and their organization shut down. But we can trace the descendants of gay media to those roots 100 years ago.
