Local publications
Nottingham CHE started publishing a newsletter fairly soon after it was founded in 1971. Chimaera ran from 1972 until 1982. Copies were run off mainly in the printing department of a local school - the Council's contribution to gay rights.
It eventually established a reputation as one of the best of its genre. It printed several articles which were later transferred to Gay News - including “The Adventures of Super Puff” by Bruce Wainwright.
"Miss Clutch’s suspicions about Nick were growing by the second. “Was it YOU that left the vibrator plugged in all day during the power strike? Downright unpatriotic, that’s what I call it. I bet Mr Heath didn’t leave his plugged in!”
In a survey by the Times Literary Supplement of voluntary groups’ newsletters, Chimaera was the only gay-linked newsletter which was mentioned.
Produced in Nottingham, by a team of volunteers from 1983 to 1984, GEM was established in response to a number of events, including the collapse of Gay News, Britain’s only gay and lesbian publication at that time and the onset of the AIDS crisis.
Whilst the original target audience was gay men and lesbians in the East Midlands, GEM’s circulation quickly spread as far afield as London and Edinburgh.
It ran to 9 editions.
You can read them by clicking below on each title
All the other newsletters and magazines in this section were known to us. Diversion came as a complete surprise. We have 3 editions and guess there must be about 8 or 9.
The fact that it's not well known is doubly surprising, because it's really rather good.
If anyone out there has copies we can have or loan or photocopy, do let us know.
Gay Nottingham first appeared early in 1985 as 2 sides of A4 back to back and then as an A4 folded into A5 leaflet.
It came at the time when Nottingham City Council began, reluctantly, to consider lesbian and gay issues under pressure from out Labour Councillor Richard McCance. Richard was the driving force behind Gay Nottingham and it's subsequent reincarnations.
It carried on until early 1987, when it was succeeded by Metrogay.
Metrogay was son of Gay Nottingham.
First appearing in 1987, it continued until the end of 1989, when it was transformed into Outright.
Metrogay deliberately moved beyond the Nottingham area and spread its distribution and its news coverage to include Leicester, Loughborough, Mansfield and Derby.
Starting in 1989, Outright continued monthly for 89 editions, until in 1997 Richard McCance decided that it was time to get off the treadmill of production and distribution.
Outright's distribution built on that of Metrogay. It also was more elegant (well, at least less awkward) in its appearance, though some of the type faces still required magnifying glasses.
As a passing comment, one can't help noticing that many of the ads in the newsletters in this section are for holistic therapies, alternative medicine and veggie food.
As the front page of issue 1 says, Lookout was essentially a listings magazine for Nottinghamshire lesbians.
The burden of its production tended to fall on a small number of very dedicated women, who deserve congratulations for their stamina. Lookout stopped production in 2015.
Lookout was generously sponsored by Campions, the Nottingham firm of solicitors.
QB was established to try to fill the gap left when Outright ceased production.
It emanated from the Health Shop and was produced by the GAi Project (later by Healthy Gay Nottingham) in collaboration with Nottingham Lesbian and Gay Switchboard.
Printed (well, photocopied on the Health Shop's temperamental photocopier) bimonthly, it was usually 4 sides of A4 on a folded sheet of A3.
It carried on until January 2003, when it was incorporated into I'm Free.
The Outhouse Project, which hoped to set up an LGBT Centre, published an occasional newsletter which was sent free to those who were members of Outhouse.
In the sense that its distribution was mainly to those who were involved in a particular group, the Outhouse Newsletter was a bit similar to Chimaera, though their content was very different.
"Wouldn't it be a good idea if QB merged with the Outhouse Newsletter, to produce something bigger and better?"
Well, they did merge and the product was I'm Free. The name was suggested as a joke (by the person typing this screed), but was eagerly pounced on.
It was bigger, it was glossier ... not sure about the "better" bit. The big problem with I'm Free was that it seemed to have no deadlines, so it could not report things which were going to happen, because by the time it appeared they had already happened.
By late Spring 2005 it became clear that I'm Free had folded.
To download copies of "I'm Free", click on the details below
In early Summer 2005 the people formerly involved in QB decided to resurrect it. The difficulty was that it could no longer be produced at the Health Shop.
Nottingham Switchboard obtained a grant to run it for a year and since then have managed to scrape together enough sponsorship to keep it going.
It does appear on time. Its deadlines are just a few days before publication, so it can give effective news about forthcoming events.
For several years the printed version was distributed around the gay/gay friendly venues and posted out to several LGBT groups.
Now it is distributed via a very large e-mail list and is also available to be downloaded from 2 or 3 websites
