Special Collections: LGBTQI+ Resources: Other Resources

The Empty Closet is one of the oldest continuously published LGBT papers in the United States. It was begun at the University of Rochester by Bob Osborn and Larry Fine, the founders of the UR student group, Rochester Gay Liberation Front, and later transferred to the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley (GAGV). In 2010, the Empty Closet celebrated its 40th year of continuous publication. As it always has, the newspaper covers local, state, national and international news, as well as issues pertaining to the LGBT community. For as long as it has been published, the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections has been collecting, preserving and making available paper copies of the Empty Closet.

This digital archive preserves and makes public the rich histories included in the documentary Shoulders to Stand On and the Green Thursday radio program. Created through a partnership between River Campus Libraries and Rochester's Out Alliance and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for Humanities, this project provides access to over 200 audio and video recordings that have been enhanced through transcriptions and/or closed captioning. University of Rochester graduate students cataloged, edited, and captioned the recordings. This project offers a model of how libraries and community organizations can partner to archive, preserve, and make accessible our shared cultural heritage.