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Newspapers & Docs

The Newspapers section features pdf scans of some historical LGBTQ+ newspapers from Nashville and Atlanta. Dare and Xenogeny News are housed in the OutCentral Collection at the Albert Gore Research Center, while The Barb is housed at the Atlanta History Center.

ALBERT GORE RESEARCH CENTER

Gay Cable Network Guides, 1989-1990. GCN was founded in 1982 by Louis P. Maletta in New York City, and it was the premier channel for LGBTQ+ programming for nearly two decades. It operated in NYC and major cities across the United States. GCN/Nashville started in 1988 by Krzysztof Krakoviak and Diane Easter.

Nashville Pride Guide, 2001. This publication features Pride event info and advertisements for LGBT-friendly businesses and organizations in Nashville, Tennessee. This publication is part of the OutCentral Collection.

The Pink Pages was a resource guide published by Kitsch*In*Sync, Inc. for the LGBTQ+ community in Nashville, Tennessee. It is filled with over 40 pages of advertisements and information about gay friendly businesses in the Nashville metropolitan area. We have one copy housed in the OutCentral Collection.

Dare (later Query)

Dare was a weekly newspaper published by Pyramid Light & Power in Nashville, Tennessee beginning in 1988. After a settlement with D.A.R.E., the paper changed its name to Query in 1991 and ceased publication in 2004. Some issues are also available at Vanderbilt University, University of Louisville, and the Lesbian Herstory Archives.



Xenogeny News

Xenogeny News was a weekly newspaper published by Kitsch*In*Sync, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee starting in 1994. At different times, it called itself a “Les*Bi*Gay” newspaper, “Middle Tennessee’s only Lesbigay newspaper,” and “your Mid-South Lesbigay newsweekly.” Below are pdf scans of the issues we have housed in the OutCentral Collection. Vanderbilt University and University of Louisville have some copies, too.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

Vanderbilt University's Special Collections and University Archives houses several collections pertaining to local LGBTQ history. Although much of this material is unprocessed, hundreds of items have been digitized and made available to the public on the institution's JSTOR Shared Collections platform under LGBTQ Collections. Included in this digital archive are:

  • Newspapers issues from Dare, Church Street Freedom Press, Query, Xenogeny and more.
  • Fliers and pamphlets from Nashville Pride celebrations, protests, and other events.
  • Records from the K.C. Potter Center, which is Vanderbilt's Office for LGBTQI Life.
  • Photographs, banners, buttons and other ephemeral objects.

ATLANTA HISTORY CENTER

Atlanta's first LGBTQ+ newspaper was The Barb, founded by Ray Green in 1974. Much like Dare, this newspaper included articles on a variety of topics, like arts, entertainment, politics, and health. While a majority of the paper focused on Atlanta, it also included stories about queer events and places throughout the South, including Nashville. The Barb helps shed light on queer Nashville of the 1970s. The Atlanta History Center digitized their copies of The Barb and made them available in their digital collections.

List of issues with Nashville stories:

Column from The Barb called, "Rambling Through Gay Tennessee," June 1977.
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