From the earliest days when a yet unknown and unidentified disease found its first victims in America’s gay communities, through the years of intense political and social activism for funding and research, to the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and the news that basketball star Magic Johnson had contracted HIV, the Empty Closet chronicled it all.

The paper was begun at the University of Rochester by Bob Osborn and Larry Fine, the founders of the University student group, Rochester Gay Liberation Front, and later transferred to the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley (GAGV).

In 2010, the Empty Closet celebrated its 40th year of continuous publication. As it always has, the newspaper covers local, state, national and international news, as well as issues pertaining to the LGBT community.

For as long as it has been published, the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections has been collecting, preserving, and archiving the Empty Closet. It was from these copies that preservation microfilm of the journal was created. Funding for the microfilming was provided as part of a grant from the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials. The digitization of the microfilm was paid for by the Gay Alliance.

Current issues of the Empty Closet may be found here: http://www.gayalliance.org/emptycloset/

From the archives

You can browse the University’s online collection of the Empty Closet at http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/EmptyCloset

Related stories:

“I remember the courage with which they faced the unknown.” December 1, 2016

8,000 posters, one collection December 1, 2016

Representing AIDS, then and now November 30, 2016

Magic Johnson’s HIV bombshell, 25 years later December 1, 2016

Category: Student Life