We are excited to bring to you The Empty Closet Collection, the oldest LGBTQ+ newspaper in New York State and one of the oldest, regularly published newspapers in the United States!

Empty Closet features stories of coming out, articles about issues surrounding LGBTQ+ community and local, state, national and international news. The collection comprises of 530 issues published since 1971.

Empty Closet was founded in 1971 at the University of Rochester by Bob Osborne and Larry Fine who also founded the Gay Liberation Front at the University. It is now run by the Out Alliance which was formerly known as the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley. The alliance held it’s first meeting in 1970 which was attended by 100 people amidst “fear of exposure in a totally homophobic society”. Over the last 45 years, the Alliance has grown from an activist organization to a permanent community institution:

“Someday LGBTQ+ Americans may no longer need a civil and human rights movement or an agency that meets their special (and usually neglected) needs, because hatred, bigotry and discrimination will no longer exist in our society.

Until that day, the Out Alliance will continue its work. “

Read more about the Out Alliance here.