Research Question

Why did zines catch on so well in queer communities?

Research Proposal Zine

Annotated Bibliography

Jennings, T. (1988, September). HOMOCORE Issue #1. Retrieved January 27, 2025, from https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/Archive/HOMOCORE/HTML/1/1.html 

The first issue of HOMOCORE, written by Tom Jennings. This issue introduces the series and sets the tone for the rest of the series. It only has one letter, seeing as it wasn't announced beforehand. It also has a list of other good zines, some news, and a couple articles written by various people.

Jones, G. (1985). J.D.s Issue #1. https://web.archive.org/web/20110104183520/http://www.qzap.org/v6/index.php?option=com_g2bridge&view=gallery&Itemid=41&g2_itemId=1333 

The first issue of J.D.s, a major inspiration for the Queercore movement and for the HOMOCORE zine. This is pretty similar to HOMOCORE, but a bit more explicit.

Galvan, M. (2024, July 26). Decidedly Non-Commercial: Zines, Zinesters and Queer Community — GLBT historical society. GLBT Historical Society. https://www.glbthistory.org/newsletter-articles/10-queer-zines 

This is an interview with Margaret Galvan in which she talks about zines in the queer community. She focuses on Queer Zine Explosion, a series of zines by Larry-Bob Roberts which reviewed queer zines.

The full version of my annotated bibliography is on the back of the zine when unfolded.

Abstract

Zines were very common in the queer community in the late 20th century. This paper looks at why zines were used so widely in queer communities, especially before the broader usage of the internet. It looks at two particularly popular magazine-style zines, HOMOCORE and J.D.s, both of which ran from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. It looks at letters from HOMOCORE to find examples of the extreme isolation experienced by queer people at the time and infighting in the queer community. The three main reasons found for zines being so popular are that: zines are easy to produce, they can be relatively discreet, and they helped people communicate directly. This paper also came to the conclusion that the feeling of isolation was crushing for queer people at the time.

Methods

I read zines published by queer people around the 80s & 90s. I specifically focused on HOMOCORE, because it has a bunch of content and several issues. It also has letters from readers, which are great for looking at the state of the queer community at the time. My discipline was history.

Primary Sources

+ HOMOCORE

+ J.D.s

+ I'm Queer. You're Straight.

Secondary Sources

+ Decidedly Non-Commercial: Zines, Zinesters and Queer Community

+ Fagazine: the Queer history of zine culture.

Conclusion

I want people to take away that zines were a massively helpful force for the queer community, to connect people and to fight isolation and loneliness.