Writing a Road Home: North Carolina’s Gay and Lesbian Periodicals and the Creation of Proud Gay and Southern Communities, 1976-1986

In this thesis, I argue that the lesbian and gay periodicals played a central role in forming socially and politically active gay and lesbian communities in North Carolina from 1976 to 1986. Gay and lesbian print media plays a primary role in forming community because it creates networks of communication for gay and lesbian people and it introduces and proliferates shared conceptions of gay and lesbian identity. I separate this communal building into three main categories: 1) direct communal building, which creates communication networks by advertising and describing in-person events, and including reader’s contributions, in the form of essays, letters, and forums; 2) indirect communal building, which introduces gay and lesbian identity through the use of art, poetry and literature to create shared culture and identity; and 3) the advocacy of activism, wherein the gay and lesbian press in North Carolina visibly mobilized their communities following instances of anti-gay violence and early AIDS relief efforts. In this thesis, I examine five periodicals: Sinister Wisdom, Lambda, The Front Page, Feminary, and the RFD. In an often unwelcoming social and political climate, these periodicals became the framework for gay and lesbian communal building in North Carolina; they created southern communication networks, they formed positive southern identities, and advocated for gay and lesbian rights in North Carolina.