Michael Dithers

by Michael Mahler

I wasn't quite sure when we started 25 years ago that we would be able to keep a local publication going for this long.

The funny part is that I had been involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), a medieval-renaissance group and had done the local chapter (Shire of Stormsport) and also the regional (Principality of Aethelmearc) newsletters and was stepping down from that. Finally, I would know what it was to not have a monthly deadline, as I started doing the local chapter newsletter in April or so of 1987. But I ended up going right from the 2 SCA newsletters to helping out with Erie Gay Community Newsletter (as we were known then.)

There was an organization at that time called Bridges that had put on a few community dances and had raised some money. Some students at Edinboro were putting a bus trip to the historic 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, which was going to be the last weekend in April, 1993.

Bridges wanted to help coordinate efforts to get people to go to the March, and there was a fair number of new groups popping up and some inter-group cooperation, so having a newsletter to keep everyone informed seemed useful.

My co-editor Deb and I, along with some other folks, took up the task. The first issue came out in late December, 1992. We had a PO Box that was 2 doors down from where I worked, and I remember that I miscalculated postage on the first issue, and seemingly all the copies that were mailed came back postage due, so I had to feverishly grab some stamps and started sticking them on the envelopes to go back out again.

It was very tight finances in the first few months, so we ended up applying for a grant from the Lambda Foundation in Pittsburgh. Before we got word on the grant application was successful, we heard that Lambda Foundation was having a charity ball, so Jacquelyn (who was the original convener of Bridges) and I thought it would be useful to put in an appearance. Neither of us were fashion mavens and we figured that it was no big deal. When we got down, we discovered that people were pretty much dressed up. We though about going in and telling people that we were just the staff at the hotel, until we realized that the staff was better dressed, However, we went in and sat at a table with some very nice lesbians, as well as a drag queen and his boyfriend, and the evening went well. PS: We got the grant later, so I think that after all of this time, they definitely got their money's worth on the original investment!

It is interesting to see how things have changed over the years and certain things that have stayed the same.

We published an online version fairly early on. I seem to recall that we used a CompuServe account for a while, followed by AOL. It was the 90's, kids. I looked, and we first registered the ErieGayNews.com domain on April 2. 1998, almost 20 years ago!

I recall worrying that something could happen to the old print editions that I had, so I spent one holiday vacation scanning in all of the back issues as separate PDFs, which are now on our web site. We also send copies of the print edition to LGBT archives in Massachusetts, New York City, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles and Amsterdam.

We started compiling area LGBT history for the Erie Bicentennial Time Capsule, as an issue of Erie Gay News was placed in there in 1995. (If you happen to be free in 2095, stop by Dobbins Landing when they open the capsule!) We have also worked on maintaining history on the web site.

One of the tougher challengers we had was when there was a database crash on our web site in October, 2014, which wiped out the the history. It took quite a while to rebuild, but it is back on our web site, and we now back up regularly to an additional service.

Lots of people have helped over the years - either by advertising, volunteering or just being supportive. We have had some folding volunteers who have been with us for many years, and some who just started coming. We have some wonderful steadfast advertisers, without whom we would not exist. One of the first major advertises was Cup-a-Ccino's. Sometimes in the past, area individuals and groups have raised money for us, which has helped us keep going.

I am hoping and planning that we will be doing this for many years to come. I think that it is very important that people know what's going on the community that they live in, and we are proud to help people and groups find each other and also resources.

Thanks to everyone who has made the past 25 years possible and thanks for your continued support in helping us achieve our mission!