The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide - History

History

The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review was founded by Dr. Richard Schneider Jr. in 1993 as an offshoot of The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Newsletter, a publication serving Harvard’s GLBT alumni that Dr. Schneider edited (1987–1995). (Dr. Schneider took a doctorate in sociology at Harvard in the early 1980s.) The original goal was to provide a vehicle for publishing gay-related talks given at Harvard University. One such talk was that of novelist Andrew Holleran, who agreed to the publication of his 1992 address, “My Harvard,” a recollection of his undergraduate years—but only if the 8,000-word entry were published in its entirety. This called for a new vehicle, and the idea for a supplementary publication was born.

At the same time, the supply of serious GLBT publications was dwindling. Christopher Street, a venerable literary journal, was in decline, as was Boston-based Gay Community News. A magazine called Out/Look had come and gone. The Advocate, once an eclectic grab-bag of news, literary pieces, and political agitprop, was becoming a newsmagazine with a focus on politics and celebrities, going to a slick format ostensibly to compete with the newly founded Out and Genre magazines. But a void existed when it came to serious, in-depth discussion of GLBT history and culture, which Dr. Schneider set out to fill with The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, whose first quarterly issue came out in Winter 1994.

Initially published by the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus, in 1996 the magazine was organized as a 501(c)(3) educational corporation. In 2000, the magazine’s name was changed to The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide to reflect its independent status, and in 2001 the Review started to publish on a bimonthly basis.