The Empty Closet Celebrates its 40th year by making a very special offer available.

The Empty Closet is one of the longest continually published LGBT newspapers in the world. Within its pages over the past 40 years you can follow a social movement as it defines itself and its goals.  From the very earliest days of "Gay Liberation" that started in the late 1960's, through the expanding awareness and social changes of the 70's, the impact of the arrival of HIV/AIDS in the 1980's, and the expansion of efforts towards full legal inclusion of the past two decades-- it is all chronicled here.

The first issue of the paper was printed in  January 1971, by a group of dedicated student activists on the campus of the University of Rochester. Working with a small portable typewriter and mimeograph machine, the authors of the Empty Closet, set out to represent and build a community.

Now, for the first time, every edition of this important document has been digitized (PDF files) and is available on one easy to search USB Flash Drive.  Invaluable to researchers of LGBT history, and of interest to everyone, the pages of the Empty Closet document the LGBT movement in Rochester, across New York state, around the nation and the world.

Empty Closet 40th Anniversary Items

USB FLASH DRIVE: 

FIRST EDITION REPRINT:

SPECIAL 40th ANNIVERSARY PACKAGE:

INSTITUTIONAL SALES

*Please note: Scanning Technology is such that photos from many of the early years are not always clear, and some of the earliest editions were produced on low quality technology of the day, so some text may be difficult to read.