From this inaugural issue of Gay Community News (known at that time as the Gay Community Newsletter):

There has been a long-standing need in the Boston gay community for improved communication between the various gay organizations and the gay individual. The lack of coverage in the "straight" press has added to this problem of getting necessary information to our community. Gay groups have attempted to overcome this problem by newsletters to their members, but this has lead to duplication of efforts, with vast portions of the community left uninformed about events until after they have passed.

The Gay Community Newsletter is meant as a means to solve this problem. The purpose will be to list all of the events and information of interest to the gay community in one publication. This will not be a literary publication. We are fortunate to have several already serving the community. We feel weekly publication will be necessary to fill this need for quick current information.

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From this issue of Gay Community News:

This will be the last issue of GCN that will have the appearance of a PTA bulletin. To give you a more concise professional paper, next week we will be switching to offset printing. The paper will be then printed on regular newsprint, with our manpower needs reduced ... We are trying to give you the best paper possible, but your interest and support alone will determine how well we can do this.

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Leading this issue of Gay Community News is a story about efforts to support, financially and otherwise, the Charles Street Universalist Meetinghouse which, according to an article in this issue, "is best known to the gay community as the closest thing we have to a Gay Community Center." Other stories include updates on the June 24, 1973, arson fire in the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans that killed 32 people; a series of muggings in the Fenway area; information about Project Place, a 24 hour counseling service; and more.

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Leading this issue of Gay Community News is a story about a murder and assault of two patrons of the Other Side bar. Other stories include information about an auction to support the Charles Street Universalist Meetinghouse; a plea from Homophile Community Health Service, which was in danger of closing for financial reasons; and information about a meeting focused on establishing a Gay Defense Committee and talking "about what we can do about our brothers and sisters who have been mugged or killed by straights, and what we can to defend ourselves in case of such an assault."

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Leading this issue of Gay Community News are stories about the growing number of reported assaults of GLBT community members. Other stories include discussions of gay community centers and the Charles Street Meetinghouse; information about "State Senate candidate Mike Amato, who has won the endorsement of the Homophile Union of Boston and State Representative Barney Frank"; and stories about GLBT issues in the media.

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New Words opened in April 1974 at 419 Washington Street in Somerville and then moved to 186 Hampshire Street in Cambridge in 1976.

Founded by Rita Arditti, Gilda Bruckman, Mary Lowry, and Jean MacRae, they chose the store’s name from a passage by Mary Daly: “Women are hearing ourselves and each other for the first time, and out of that creative hearing emerge new words.”

Noted speakers included Alison Bechdel, Kate Clinton, Lillian Faderman, Leslie Feinberg, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, and others, including the women of Kitchen Table Press and the Combahee River Collective among other lesbian and feminist presses.

After the bookstore closed in 2002, the organization transitioned into the non-profit Center for New Words. In 2010, the Center for New Words channeled all of its resources to support Women, Action, & the Media, an online network of feminist journalists, authors, and activists.
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