USM Special Collections Marks Milestone for Maine’s First LGBTQ+ Newspaper During Pride Month

More than five decades after publishing Maine’s first gay newspaper, the founders of “Mainely Gay” have released a 50th anniversary edition that will be added to the University of Southern Maine’s Special Collections — the largest collection of LGBTQ+ archival materials in the state. USM is distributing the edition at Pride events across Maine and will host a public panel discussion and display of original materials from the publication on June 25.

Maine’s LGBTQ+ movement finds its voice

“The Maine Gay Task Force Newsletter” emerged in 1974, when more than 300 people gathered at the University of Maine at Orono for the state’s first Maine Gay Symposium. Organized by the university’s newly formed gay student organization — the Wilde Stein Club — the symposium drew attendees from across Maine and became the birthplace of the Maine Gay Task Force. Within months, the group published the first issue of the newsletter.

“Few realize that in 1973-74, Maine was considered a battleground state nationally in the fight for gay rights,” said Steve Bull, co-founder of the Wilde Stein Club and Maine Gay Task Force. “Any East Coast activist worth their salt made trips to Maine to support our effort.”

Typed, photocopied, and hand-distributed by a small group of activists from across the state, the newsletter remained in print until 1976, when it expanded into a full newspaper under the name “Mainely Gay.” It ran until September 1980, documenting the state’s LGBTQ+ movement through major legislative battles and inspiring more than three dozen other community publications. By 1977, the publication noted that 35% of its subscriptions were mailed outside Maine, part of a practice common among queer publications at the time: exchanging issues with LGBTQ+ groups in other states to stay connected to a wider movement.

Decades of queer history, preserved at USM

USM’s Special Collections holds the original run of both publications — part of a larger archive that has kept Maine’s LGBTQ+ history accessible for decades.

“We bring classes in all the time from a variety of disciplines,” said Susie R. Bock, coordinator of Special Collections and director of the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine. “I’ve had a high school-age student say to me, ‘Oh my God, a university is collecting on me, on my people.’”

The making of a 50th anniversary edition

The 50th anniversary edition brought together four of the founding editors — Peter Prizer, Steve Bull, Stan Fortuna, and Susan Henderson — alongside writer and researcher Vachon. The idea had been on Prizer’s mind for years.

“About five years ago, I got this idea that it might be fun — and definitely crazy — to publish one last issue with contributions from a few of the old hands who were still alive,” Prizer said. “No one was really in charge, but articles arrived and people volunteered to help. The idea was for contributors to write about anything they wanted, and they did.”

It wasn’t until last fall that the project fully came together — a 50th anniversary edition marking five decades since the newsletter’s founding, now being distributed at Pride events across Maine.

“I think that everyone who wrote, or contributed to this final issue was aware that it would stand as an epilogue, so to speak, to a remarkable time in Maine when the very first organized queer movement began,” Prizer said.  

Marking the moment at USM

Later this month, Bull, Prizer, and Vachon will join USM Special Collections for a panel discussion celebrating the milestone. 

“I want the current generation to be familiar with the rich history in Maine,” Bull said. “At conferences in the 1970s we talked about how queer history had been erased — we knew we had to document our own history. If not, it would not get done. USM has a gem that should be nurtured.”

Today, that history remains accessible — the collection is digitally available through USM’s Digital Commons, and USM Special Collections welcomes ongoing manuscript and artifact donations to help preserve it.

For Prizer, the anniversary edition offered something simpler, and just as meaningful. 

“I think it’s kinda cool that we’ve had this rare opportunity to yell one more time,” he said.