Pitt archives contain publications detailing history of Pittsburgh's queer community
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- On this final day of Pride month, we step back in time to take a journey through the history of the LGBTQ+ press.
In America, it began back in the 1930s as an underground movement. But in the 70s, it reached the surface, including in Pittsburgh.
In the shadow of the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh campus sits Hillman Library.
On the library's third floor, you'll find archives and special collections. And in those archives? "Evidence that we have been here for a very long time," said librarian and archivist Megan Massanelli.
Massanelli says the archives contain hundreds, if not thousands, of publications detailing the history of Pittsburgh's queer community over the past 50 years.
"The LGBTQ press that we have really starts in the 1970s, late 1960s," Massanelli says, which was right after the Stonewall riots as the gay rights movement took shape and pride events began in cities nationwide, including Pittsburgh.
"They're often representing an alternative to mainstream press at the time. They're representing and investigating stories that weren't being told and telling a lot of stories from an LGBTQ perspective," Massanelli said.
There were titles like "Pittsburgh Gay News," "Gay Life," "Pittsburgh's Out" and "Planet Q."
"They document the LGBTQ community in Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania," Massanelli said.
Some focused on the social scene while others focused on social justice -- something Massanelli says was happening in places other than just New York and LA.
"Pittsburgh also had a thriving activist scene," Massanelli said.
And, in the years long before the internet, Massanelli says these papers were critical to the cause.
"People could write in letters, they could put out calls for meetings, they could find each other in physical spaces through these print publications," Massanelli said.
Today, this collection of newspapers, newsletters and other documents provides not only a glimpse into the past but also hope for the future.
"Being at a university, we do work a lot with students too and it's been really meaningful for students to see that a lot of this work that they might feel like or perceive as very new has been worked on for many generations and that there are things to learn from previous generations' work on these issues," Massanelli said.
