Citizens News, Vol. IV, Nos. 13 and 14
San Francisco: Strait and Associates, [1965]. Two successive issues of this early homophile newspaper edited and published by pioneering gay publisher and activist Guy Strait (1920-1987) in San Francisco. Citizens News began as LCE News in 1961, the organ of Strait’s political group, League for Civil Education, and was the first gay newspaper in San Francisco. Although it was originally intended to circulate only in the Bay Area, it expanded to include national and international news on police repression, politics, gay history, social action, and the gay scene. In the Vol. IV, No. 13 issue (included here), Strait announced the publication of a corollary paper, Cruise News & World Report, which was less political and more focused on gay meetups and humor.
The rest of Strait’s life was an ignominious descent into child pornography, child prostitution, and child molestation, for which he was imprisoned for much of the 1970s. He was one of the individuals profiled in the 1980 report Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Report to the Illinois General Assembly. He was largely ostracized from the gay community following his release from prison and he died of a heart attack in 1987.
Side-folding printed in black on white stock, both issues 24 pp. Fine condition. Item #13874
Price: $250.00