Have you heard of Farmers Only? Do you find yourself watching Brokeback Mountain over and over? This episode takes “City people just don’t get it” to a whole new level. Listen as Haley and Erin discover the personals of cowboy bachelors, country dykes, and Gay okies. Because as we all know, “Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other!”

Listen to us on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your tunes!

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Music written and strummed by Omar Nassar. 

Icon design by Bekah Rich. 

Mentions:

Wild, Wild Country - Streamable on Netflix
Lindsy Van Gelder and Pamela Robin Brandt, Girls Next Door: Into the Heart of Lesbian America
Welcome to Your Fantasy
Transplantings

Sources:

Gay sunshine, Spring, 1974.  Berkeley Library Digital Collections.

OUT FRONT, Volume XV, Number 22, February 15, 1991.  Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.

The Gayly Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, June 1, 1984.

The Gayly Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 1, 1984.

The San Francisco Bay times., Sep 1989, Vol. 10 No. 12. Berkeley Library Digital Collections

Come out and soak up some Gay Sunshine with Haley this week, as they traipse through the history of this unique little newspaper. Haley outlines some of the paper’s history with Berkeley’s Gay Liberation Front, the Gay Sunshine Press, and the long-time editor Winston Leyland. Or, skip to the end and listen to some iconic personal ads from Gay Sunshine in the 1970s.

As always, music by Omar Nassar.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Sources: 

Activism After Stonewall, Library of Congress LGBTQIA+ Resource Guide

Noel Halifax, "When gays and Panthers were united" Socialist Review, July/August 2015. 

Nick Benton, ”Who Needs It?” Gay Sunshine, Aug-Sep, 1970, Vol. 01 No. 01.

ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives Finding Aid: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8h41q5v/dsc/

"Mattachine Review ." Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America, 1st Edition. . Encyclopedia.com. 16 Aug. 2021 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

 Charles Kirtley, “LET THE SUNSHINE IN: The Pioneering Role of Winston Leyland in Gay Publishing” Appeared in Lesbian and Gay New York, Spring 1998

http://www.leylandpublications.com/article_leyland.html

“Winston Leyland | Profile”, LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, accessed August 23, 2021, https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/profiles/winston-leyland

Gay Sunshine, March 1971, Vol. 01 No. 06.

Gay Sunshine, January-February 1974, Vol. 01 No. 20. 

Gay Sunshine, Spring 1974, Vol. 01 No. 21. 

Did you know that people wrote in to their newspapers for friends' birthdays, anniversaries, or even just to get a hold of someone? In Episode 8, Thaddeus and Haley flip through some queer classifieds to find some fun examples of how people announced their feelings before the digital age. 

If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Sources:

Gay Community News,   1986 February 15. Northeastern University Library.

OUT FRONT,  Volume III,  Number 4, June 1, 1978. Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. 

We the People, December 1988. Berkeley Library Digital Collections.

"Denver Detour," April 12, 2015.

Southern voice, August 4, 1988. Digital Library of Georgia.

Patrick Saunders, "Atlanta gay bar Oscar's owners buy Burkhart's , plan name change." The Gay Voice, April 2, 2018

Becca J.G. Godwin, "Owner of Atlanta gay bar under fire after controversial posts surface," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 24, 2018. 

Vol 1, Feb:Mar 2004 H.E.R.S. magazine

We the People, October 1989. Berkeley Library Digital Collections.

We the People, Aug 1989, Vol. 02 No. 04. Berkeley Library Digital Collections.

We the People, Nov 1988, Vol. 01 No. 07. Berkeley Library Digital Collections.

We the People, Dec 1988, Vol. 01 No. 08. Berkeley Library Digital Collections.

Welcome once again to Q4Q, where Haley reads old LGBTQ Queer Personal Ads with their friends. In this episode, Haley and Sam dive into newspaper archives from Washington, D.C., San Francisco, St. Louis, and Philadelphia to peruse some ads that might be expecting too much. Follow us on our journey through resumes, Polaroids, and maybe even Guy Fieri? 

If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Music written and strummed by Omar Nassar.

Icon design by Bekah Rich.

Sources, found through Jim Burroway's List of LGBT Digital Archives on the Web

The Washington Blade, November 11, 1988. DigDC

The Washington Blade, November 27, 1988. DigDC

The Gay News-Telegraph (St. Louis, Mo), November 1985, St. Louis University

Philadelphia Gay News, May 1976, JSTOR

San Francisco Bay Times, September 1989, Berkeley Library Digital Collections

Join Haley and their Museum Dad, Meg, as they peruse some personal ads with impeccable intro sentences that really hook you in. This episode was originally themed "It Didn't Have to Be That Weird," because there are some bizarre adjectives,  fun nicknames, and questionable metaphors.  As one of our young lonely hearts exclaims, "Let's get sticky, witty, and warm!"

If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Music written and strummed by Omar Nassar.

Icon design by Bekah Rich.

Sources, found through Jim Burroway's List of LGBT Digital Archives on the Web

The Washington Blade, November 27, 1998. DigDC

Philadelphia Gay News, March 1976, JSTOR.

Southern Voice, October 12, 1989, Digital Library of Georgia.

OUT FRONT, Volume XVI, Number 1, April 12, 1991. Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.

The Washington Blade, May 16, 1986. DigDC

From the mailbox to your DMs, Missy and Haley take a look at queer personal ads and how they evolved from print media to social media and apps. In this episode, they discuss the history of submitting personal ads into newspapers, the Mattachine Society's ONE magazine and their fight against the US Postal Service, and how the digital age has adjusted the way we date (and where Lex sits in that). All opinions expressed here are our own!

If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Music written and strummed by Omar Nassar.

Icon design by Bekah Rich.

Secondary Sources: 

Dawn Mitchell, "Female Indiana serial killer, the 'comely' Belle Gunness, loved her suitors to death" Indy Star, November 10, 2017

"Cupid in the personal ads." Alberta History, vol. 60, no. 2, 2012, p. 16. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A289620023/GPS?u=usocal_main&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=18863ab6. Accessed 21 June 2021

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/personals-instagram/

https://www.instagram.com/qpocpersonals/

https://www.vogue.com/article/lex-queer-dating-app

https://timeline.com/tinder-personal-ads-history-4c34c7d6dbcb

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title18/part1/chapter83&edition=prelim

German Lopez, published in Vox, May 28, 2014--details the homophobic history of the postal service--and interview with David Johnson, the author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. 

Poppy Noor, It's a sincere process': why personal dating ads are making a comeback, October 31, 2019 

Personals, Daniel Harris, The Antioch Review Vol. 59, No. 2, Anniversary Issue: Sowing Words for Sixty Years (Spring, 2001), pp. 284-301 (18 pages)  Published By: Antioch Review Inc. https://doi.org/10.2307/4614162 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4614162;  Accessed June 21, 2021

Today In History: ONE Magazine versus the US Post Office 

Primary Sources:

One Volume 2, Issue 5, May 1st, 1954

Gay sunshine., Jan-Feb, 1974, No. 20

The San Francisco Bay times., Sep 1989, Vol. 10 No. 12

The San Francisco Bay times., Sep 1989, Vol. 10 No. 12

Kansas City, MO, Personally, January 1988

Lex, 2020-2021

PersonalsBot on Instagram

Is there anything the Gays love more than astrology? Probably not! Find out if your stars align with these personal ads! Please don’t get angry at us, we’re just teasing.

Don't forget to check out the new intro and outro music, written and strummed by Omar Nassar.

If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Sources, listed in order of appearance:

Southern Voice Vol No 4 - April 14, 1988 

Bad Attitude, Vol 9 No. 3, 1994

The San Francisco Bay times, Jun 1989, Vol. 10 No. 09

The San Francisco Bay times, Jun 1989, Vol. 10 No. 09

Indianapolis New Works, April 1987

Philadelphia Gay News, Issue 5, May 1976

Southern Voice Vol 5, April 21 and 27, 1994

Southern Voice, Vol 3, February 17 and 23rd, 1994

Join Haley as they wander through the history of the lesbian erotica magazine On Our Backs, explore how the periodical inspired the dating app Lex, and flip through 2 issues that they purchased for research purposes. *I swear!!*


If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Disclaimer: the views expressed in these personal ads are not my own. Some of the ads are from eras with very different ideas about race, bodies, and what it means to be part of the LGBTQ community. While I do not take these things lightly and will do my best to address them as I see them, I am also here to make fun of the thirsty, pining, and sometimes ridiculous queer lonely hearts sent out into the world. 

This podcast features the song “Endurance (Undertail Coverts Mix)” by duckett available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

What follows is the citations to ads in order of their appearance. Please enjoy and feel free to look them up yourself if you’re feeling lonely!

Primary Sources:
On Our Backs: Entertainment for the Adventurous Lesbian, Volume X, Issue 3, 1995. https://www.abebooks.com/magazines-periodicals/Backs-entertainment-adventurous-lesbian-vol-MarApr/30111996273/bd

On Our Backs: Entertainment for the Adventurous Lesbian, Volume X, Issue 2, January/February 1995.

Secondary Sources:
Martha Cornog, Timothy Perper, "For sex education, see librarian: a guide to issues and resources", Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0-313-29022-9, p.97

Off Our Backs Mission, https://offourbacks.org/mission/

Reveal Digital, https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=BADICEB&ai=1&

On Our Backs, World Heritage Encyclopedia,  http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/On_Our_Backs

On Our Backs: An Archive exhibition, January 26-28, 2017, NewBridge Studios, Entertainment For The Adventurous Lesbian: Featuring Phyllis Christopher, https://thenewbridgeproject.com/past-event/on-our-backs-an-archive/

Lizzie Masterson, An Interview with the curators of ON OUR BACKS: AN ARCHIVE, 2017, https://cuntemporary.org/on-our-backs

Jordan Crook, "New lo-fi, text-based social app Lex, for queer women, raises $1.5 million," TechCrunch, July 16, 2020, https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/16/new-lo-fi-text-based-social-app-lex-for-queer-women-raises-1-5-million/

Work at Lex, https://www.notion.so/Work-at-Lex-e80dc5c9af2c438aa48ecd7310e32283

Reveal Digital Statement on Off Our Backs, http://revealdigital.com/wp-

Hello! Welcome to Q4Q, a podcast where I read old personal ads with one of my friends. This episode I have with me one of my good friends and queer historians, Kai. Kai and I sift through one of my favorite websites--the Washington Blade archive on DigDC--hosted by the D.C. Public Library. With just a D.C. library card, we can access hundreds of copies of the LGBTQ newspaper, which ran from 1969 into today. So, our location is D.C., but our theme is “lesbians.” We're talking about U-Haul driving, Melissa Etheridge-listening, women who love women who aren’t content with just making eyes at a girl from across the bar. 

If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.

Disclaimer: the views expressed in these personal ads are not my own. Some of the ads are from eras with very different ideas about race, bodies, and what it means to be part of the LGBTQ community. While I do not take these things lightly and will do my best to address them as I see them, I am also here to make fun of the thirsty, pining, and sometimes ridiculous queer lonely hearts sent out into the world. 

This podcast features the song “Endurance (Undertail Coverts Mix)” by duckett available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.


What follows is the citations to ads in order of their appearance. Please enjoy and feel free to look them up yourself if you’re feeling lonely! 

In order of appearance:

Washington Blade, November 20, 1998, print newspaper, DC Public Library, Special Collections, Periodicals, Washington Blade, DigDC (Accessed April 2021)

Washington Blade, November 11, 1988, print newspaper, DC Public Library, Special Collections, Periodicals, Washington Blade, DigDC (Accessed April 2021)

Washington Blade, November 20, 1998, print newspaper, DC Public Library, Special Collections, Periodicals, Washington Blade, DigDC (Accessed April 2021)

Washington Blade, November 27, 1998, print newspaper, DC Public Library, Special Collections, Periodicals, Washington Blade, DigDC (Accessed April 2021)

Washington Blade, April 1, 1976, print newspaper, DC Public Library, Special Collections, Periodicals, Washington Blade, DigDC (Accessed April 2021)

Washington Blade, November 20, 1998, print newspaper, DC Public Library, Special Collections, Periodicals, Washington Blade, DigDC (Accessed April 2021)

Washington Blade, November 27, 1998, print newspaper, DC Public Library, Special Collections, Periodicals, Washington Blade, DigDC (Accessed April 2021)

@Soft.butch, Lex, Boston, March 2021. 

Hello! Welcome to the first episode of Q4Q, a podcast where I read old personal ads with one of my friends. This episode I have with me one of my best friends from college--Tabitha. Join Tabitha and I as we read several ads from 1987 and 1990 featured in the New Works, a gay newspaper centered in Indianapolis, Indiana--the fine state that we both grew up in. 

What follows is a list of the ads and where I found them. Please enjoy and feel free to look them up yourself if you’re feeling lonely!

If you haven’t already, please give us a quick review and rating on iTunes or wherever you’re listening.

Interested in being on the show? Contact us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @Queerpersonals and Instagram @Queerpersonalspodcast.
 

I found all of this digital archive through a blog post made by Jim Burroway at JimBurroway.com, where he lists and links LGBT digital archives on the web by state. I’m forever indebted to him. Through this, he linked to the Chris Gonzalez GLBT Archives holdings of The Works, or The New Works. 

This podcast features the song “Endurance (Undertail Coverts Mix)” by duckett available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

Show Icons featured are:
 "orange petals on pink pattern design" by Rebekah Leigh is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/d3d7318c-de01-40b1-92ef-2cde011209d5

"homme nu peintures nus masculins érotiques Art Gallery hommes gais peintures oeuvres homosexuels raphael perez artiste" by Raphael Perez Israeli Artist is licensed with CC BY 2.0. https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/0b6fc754-55c7-4bb6-8247-eb48f8452511

Sources:

The New Works News, Vol 6 No 6, 1987-03. Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives. (Accessed April 2021) https://ulib.iupuidigital.org/digital/collection/GonzalesLib/id/3721/rec/1

The New Works News, Vol 6 No 7, 1987-04. Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives. (Accessed April 2021) https://ulib.iupuidigital.org/digital/collection/GonzalesLib/id/501/rec/1

The New Works News, Vol 10 No 3, 1990-12. Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives. (Accessed April 2021) https://ulib.iupuidigital.org/digital/collection/GonzalesLib/id/2601

The New Works News, Vol 10 No 1, 1990-10. Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives. (Accessed April 2021) https://ulib.iupuidigital.org/digital/collection/GonzalesLib/id/2551