Preserving Pride
Since 1967, The Advocate magazine has been the voice of the LGBTQ+ community. Your donation will help make those voices stronger, louder, and prouder.
For nearly 60 years, The Advocate, the nation’s oldest and leading LGBTQ+ magazine, has inspired readers. Its journalists have broken major news stories and landed exclusive interviews, securing a significant place in LGBTQ+ history.
The magazine started as a newsletter shortly after the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day 1967. Being queer was illegal in most states, and police routinely raided gay establishments. When patrons of the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles shared celebratory kisses, undercover police moved in, arresting and beating customers and employees in a bar bust that changed history.
ONE Archives/USC Libraries
The protests that followed led to the formation of gay rights organizations and a newsletter called The Advocate, published by a group called PRIDE: Personal Rights in Defense and Education.
That newsletter grew into The Advocate magazine. The publication is now the only surviving national print and digital magazine of its kind, founded before the 1969 Stonewall riots and protests in New York after similar police brutality.
Current Challenges Facing The Advocate
On the eve of its 60th anniversary, the publication is now caught in the crossfire of another difficult climate and needs your help sustaining and expanding its coverage. LGBTQ-focused journalism serves as a vital tool for community safety. It connects marginalized voices and acts as a watchdog against harmful narratives. People who are both queer and part of a racial minority group, or who have disabilities, can face compounded discrimination, stress, and intersectionality.
Some LGBTQ+ individuals experience economic hardship and are low-income; some have lost jobs due to their identity. Others find themselves homeless after family rejection, and contemplate or commit suicide. The Advocate’s print magazine, website, and social media provide actionable, even lifesaving information. People experiencing mental health challenges, trauma, and emotional difficulties can find help and support. Equalpride, publisher of The Advocate, has made this digital and print publication the centerpiece of The Advocate Journalism Project. Our journalists tell the queer stories that no one else can or will, and that reporting leads to real change. We hold the powerful accountable.
The Advocate Journalism Project
Giving to The Advocate Journalism Project will help continue the impactful, essential community reporting The Advocate’s journalists provide, giving a voice to this vulnerable community. The mission is to sustain and expand the independent magazine’s acclaimed, award-winning journalism and historic reporting through public and corporate donations, grants, and other funding that exclusively and directly supports storytelling, investigative reporting, training future journalists, and preserving the print publication and its archive.
81 million people in the U.S. don’t have a home broadband internet subscription, and print magazines remain a valuable source of news and information. (Some readers have snuck into bookstores to read the magazine!)
Please help amplify the LGBTQ+ community’s voice, making it stronger and louder through nonprofit fundraising, a growing trend in newsrooms nationwide
With your support, The Advocate can reach the widest possible audience and continue its mission of award-winning journalism that directly impacts people’s lives.