Lesbian and Gay

Authors

Polly Thistlethwaite, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow
Daniel C. Tsang, University of California, Irvine

Document Type

Book Chapter or Section

Publication Date

1992

Abstract

"The lesbian and gay press has shaped and reflected the rise of gay and lesbian liberation," Dan Tsang and Polly Thistlethwaite wrote in the introduction to the 'Lesbian and Gay' section of Katzes' 1992 edition of Magazines for Libraries. This title review of the queer periodicals of the day was intended to serve as a guide and justification for 'mainstream' libraries' collection building. The number and range of titles in Thistlethwaite and Tsang's collaborative entries (1989, 1992, and 1995) far exceeded any mainstream library collection known to either of the authors who were nevertheless hopeful that libraries would expand their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender periodical holdings to better serve their communities. Tsang's expertise about the 'alternative press' grew from his librarianship, his scholarship, his activism, journalism, and his extensive personal collecting; Thistlethwaite came to know the queer press by tending the periodical collection at the Lesbian Herstory Archives. The years of the AIDS epidemic also saw "the proliferation of newsletters and journals from gay and lesbian people of color within the United States, especially African Americans and Asian Americans," we observed. Additionally, authors pressed "the computerized indexing industry" to include glbt titles in the indexes researchers used to find periodical articles.

Comments

This work was originally published in "Magazines for Libraries", edited by Bill Katz and Linda S. Katz and published by Bowker. It is made available here with permission of the editors