Founded in 1970 in San Francisco, Gay Sunshine was more than a newspaper — it was a declaration. Emerging in the wake of Stonewall, the publication rejected secrecy and shame, insisting instead on visibility, liberation, and intellectual seriousness. Its very name was a challenge: joyful, defiant, and impossible to ignore.
Gay Sunshine published essays, interviews, poetry, and political writing that helped shape modern gay identity. It covered liberation movements, sexual politics, art, spirituality, and community life at a moment when simply printing the word “gay” was still considered dangerous. Read on college campuses, passed hand to hand, and mailed discreetly across the country, it became a lifeline for readers who had never seen their lives reflected in print before.
