A History of Queer Zines
Queer publishing includes art, criticism, everyday life and the work of preserving community memory.
Queer zines are not one genre with one appearance. Some discuss sexuality or gender directly. Others contain comics, music writing or personal stories made by queer people.
The Queer Zine Archive Project, or QZAP, uses a broad approach: it considers both a publication's content and how its maker identifies. Its own introductory zine explains that approach.
It leaves room for queer lives to include more than an explanation of identity.
A publication could make a position visible
Toronto's J.D.s offers one example from the 1980s.
Alternative Toronto's record of its first issue dates it to 1985 and credits editors G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce. The record identifies a photocopied publication and credits Jones with its cover concept and design.
The archive places it within queer punk history, often described as queercore: a connection between queer expression and punk cultural activity.
A zine could make that connection tangible. Readers could encounter an editorial position in words and images, then carry the publication beyond the place where it was made.
Several kinds of community overlapped
Queer publishing also intersects with feminist publishing and other parts of punk.
Cornell's Riot Grrrl zine and music collection includes material collected by Matt Wobensmith, who published Outpunk from 1992 to 1997. Its subjects extend across music, gender and queer culture.
Such overlap is a reason to resist a tidy timeline in which one movement ends and another begins. People can participate in several communities, and a publication can answer several needs at once.
Preserving work became another community project
QZAP began in 2003. Its introductory publication describes an archive containing work on subjects ranging from activism and HIV/AIDS to travel, art and daily life.
The range matters historically. If a collection preserves only public campaigns or famous figures, ordinary experiences can disappear from view.
A small personal publication may record how someone understood a relationship, a place or a moment before those experiences entered a larger account of the period.
Greater access brings responsibilities
Making a publication available to more readers can help preserve it. It can also change the audience dramatically.
The Zine Librarians Code of Ethics asks archivists to consider creators' expectations and the personal nature of some material.
For readers, a useful habit is to treat an old zine as work made by a person, not simply as content available to repost. Check the archive's reproduction guidance and the maker's stated wishes.
Queer zine history includes the work of creating visibility, but also decisions about where, how and with whom to share.
Read next: Why Libraries Collect Zines.