Here you will find the contents of Gay East Midlands (GEM), a monthly magazine printed and published in Nottingham, England from 1983 to 1984.

Despite its relatively short lifespan, GEM managed to reach audiences as far afield as Edinburgh and London, as well as the local gay and lesbian populations in places like Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. And it's timing was absolutely crucial, arriving at a time when AIDS was just emerging as a frightening and mysterious illness, systematic police harassment of gays was still in full swing and the only national gay paper Gay News had collapsed.

So GEM did what it could to keep people informed. Produced entirely by volunteers, it covered a wide range of subjects from AIDS, coming out and gay rights to music and the local club scene. And even though so many issues were reported from a local perspective, it is clear that they had - and, indeed, still do have - a universal relevance.

So, this is the way we were - a bit of gay history. It's worth reading just to see what's changed and what hasn't. And if it all gets too much, you can always cheer yourself up by checking out Cathy White's wonderful cartoon strip 'Dykes about Town', one of the many GEM items worthy of a much larger audience.

Read it all online or download your very own PDF copy to love and treasure in the privacy of your own home. But please bear with us; it's quite a bit of work putting every issue online so if the issue you want to see isn't currently available please come back and try again later. We will get every issue up eventually.

Colin Clews
Founding member, GEM Collective
June 2008

N.B. All 'Dykes About Town' material is copyright Cathy White 2008. Colin Clews asserts copyright on all other GEM material published on this site on behalf of the GEM Collective. If you wish to use any material please contact us first (it's unlikely we'll say no).

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