As it goes into its 30th year, there’s a very good reason for GCN’s survival, against the odds

2018 is a big year for GCN, in that it turns 30, making it the oldest surviving free LGBT+ magazine in Europe. It’s no mean feat in an industry that’s been in flux since the dawn of the digital age, and for a publication that’s aimed at a relatively small niche living on this small island.

Although it’s changed and grown considerably since issue one was published in 1988, there’s a straight line through from then until now that is core to GCN’s longevity – its relationship to its readers.

Five years before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland, GCN was published by the National LGBT Federation to act as a kind of nucleus for a disparate group of people who largely had no access to information. Those gays who were ‘in the know’ were a small group of people who lived in Dublin and socialised on an underground scene; the rest mostly lived in invisible isolation. On one hand, GCN’s role was to let them know what was going on socially, culturally and politically, and on the other it was to be a conduit for other groups and organisations to share their information.

It was not-for-profit and published by a voluntary board of publishers, who were members of the community. That it was free of charge was central to GCN’s role. It was to be a fully accessible service, a place for the community to see itself reflected and celebrated, while engaging in the real issues that LGBT+ people faced in this country.

Nowadays, along with the monthly printed magazine, we have a busy website, an app with special digital versions of the mag, and annual events like The GALAS, which celebrate our community, particularly the efforts of individuals and organisations across Ireland who seek to make life better for LGBT+ people.

But as we enter our 30th birthday year, GCN is still that free-ofcharge, not-for-profit information service; a hub for every LGBT+ community organisation in Ireland that seeks to represent every queer event, group, artist, politician, activist, and community worker in this country. The number of queer people living in Ireland who have been featured in these pages, or who have written for GCN, is phenomenal.

It also continues to be a hand that reaches out to those who are not at the heart of the action, who are isolated and in need of connection to their community.

You may be reading this issue of GCN in a gay bar in Dublin, or at home having picked it up at your local LGBT+ centre, and if you are, count yourself lucky. Burning Issues 2, the largest ever survey of the issues affecting LGBTs in Ireland, which was conducted by GCN’s publishers in 2016, reported a significant gap in the lives of rural LGBT+ people, who are doubly deprived of community supports and opportunities to socialise.

Over the coming year, we’ll be looking at the history of GCN in relation to Ireland’s LGBT+ community, but one thing is clear as we go towards the 30th anniversary of the first issue, its amazing longevity is rooted in an ongoing need for a publication that is not only for the community, but is of the community.