By Evelyn Bailey

The Empty Closet 40th Anniversary Celebration is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 27, in the Tea Room, fourth floor, Auditorium Center, 875 E. Main St.

This year the Empty Closet turns 40 – a milestone in anyone’s life, but an exceptional one especially today for any newspaper, let alone a gay newspaper!

Bob Osborne, Brian (Monday) Tangen, Debbie Lestz, Larry Fine, RJ Alcala, and Patricia Evers were the first six writers for The Empty Closet. Each put pen to paper and what they wrote was pretty radical even by today’s standards, and I quote,  “Gay Liberation is more than a group of oppressed people joined together to seek freedom and justice.  Gay Liberation is a call to power.” (Debbie Lestz, Empty Closet, January, 1971)


The first issue of the EC was a “booklet” of 18 – 5.5 x 8” pages in black and white. There was no identified editor or staff until July, 1975.  At that time the editor used only a first initial – J – for fear of reprisal. The “closet” was truly the safest place to be.

Today 40 years later, The Empty Closet is a 40-page monthly newspaper with local, state, national and world LGBT news, an editorial, a column from the Executive Director, photo essays,  letters and op/ed pages, book reviews, GAGV and youth pages, monthly and ongoing calendars, a list of community resources, a gay comic strip, columnists and many other features.

The December/January 2011 issue is an 11×17” newspaper with two Sections, a total of 40 pages in color. Susan Jordan has been editor of the EC for 22 years. The Empty Closet is the official publication of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, Inc. Its purpose is to inform the Rochester gay community about local and national gay-related news and events; to provide a forum for ideas and creative work from the local gay community; to help promote leadership within the community; and to be a part of a national network of lesbian and gay publications that exchange ideas and seek to educate.

Today the Empty Closet still gives voice to radical thought, and I quote: “Maybe its better for one’s ‘sanity’ to concentrate on the work being done by unsung progressives and community organizers who fight racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of hatred and injustice – and the cynical exploitation of hatred to win votes.” (Susan Jordan, Empty Closet, Dec/Jan 2011)

The Empty Closet has grown tremendously over the past 40 years.  We hoped our celebration on Sunday, Feb. 27, would take place at the University of Rochester, where the first issue was printed. A lack of available space on that particular date caused us to move our celebration to the Auditorium Center’s Tea Room on the fourth floor of the Auditorium Center. From 5:30–7:30 p.m. you will have an opportunity to look at original issues of The Empty Closet and to meet the first editor, the first printer, some of the writers of the January 1971 issue, and the current and some past editors. There will be a few surprises, a birthday cake and light refreshments to share.

COME CELEBRATE AND BE A PART OF THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!

Empty Closet 40th Anniversary Celebration Is February 27

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