“The more we bi**h, the more will change. Rant up a f***ing storm and stay classy, queers.”
By Greg Owen
“Queer zine, N. A sexy, subversive and explicit publication devoted to enlarging and examining our cultural assumptions.”
That’s a definition of queer zines unearthed by the Queer Zine Archive Project, or QZAP, an online archive dedicated to the preservation and promotion of queer zines, those Xeroxed or mimeographed collections of activism, art, and opinion that proliferated in the final decades of the last century before the internet and social media pretty much elbowed them into irrelevance.
You can still find new queer zines, of course, in different digital and printed forms, but the ragtag quality of the literal cut-and-paste versions better captured the subversive howl against authority that they were intended to be. Held in your hand, maybe still warm from the copier, they felt substantial in a way that a screen zine just doesn’t.
Ironically enough, while everything is forever on the internet before the EMP drops, those physical copies of classic queer zines are often hard to find. Tracking them down and sharing them with a new generation is what QZAP is all about.
The group’s dedication to archival activism, notably, is right in their acronym: It recalls another subversive movement, the “zaps” of the 1970s that Gay Liberation groups deployed to hold public officials to account, like Stonewall activist Mark Segal crashing the set of the CBS Evening News to protest for gay rights live on television.
Sharing queer zines of the past is one way to propel their activism into the future.
Here’s one example of a QZAP find.
Going Homo, Issue #2, 1993
This 24-page collection of submissions wrangled by creator Stephen Dedalus solicited work that was “outrageous, thoughtful, provocative, enraged or excited.” He got what he wished for, including letters from readers, reviews of other zines, music recommendations, personal stories, political arguments, sex writing, sexy graphix, and some long angry rants.
In the letters section, one reader tears into military service, which was then in the news as the Clinton administration contemplated a new “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy for LGBTQ+ service members at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
“I hope there is more about this focus on lifting the military ban in future issues,” James Jazmyn writes. “However, I hope the facts about the United States military being an environmental and social disease are mentioned. And any self-respecting queer would avoid joining this corrupt death machine. Those who want to serve this military madness as equals to their hetero-soldiers are insane and have co-opted the voice of the queer community for too long.”
Cut-and-paste art on the same subject followed, depicting buff recruits running drills and captioned, “They Could Kill For Liberty They Don’t Even Have!”
The issue features some erotic art, too, including a regular “Page 4 Dude” feature and a “Back Page Butt,” along with calls to come out and a breakdown on what to call ourselves, which sounds like it’s ripped from a Reddit debate today: “The younger generation generally will use the term queer either because it’s cool or to piss off the complacent/sex negative older more established gays.”
“Words are powerful tools for both liberation and oppression,” they say.
Said the QZAP intern who posted the zine: “Bi***in about systems designed to keep us in a perpetual loop of sh*t is my favorite thing. The more we bi**h, the more will change. Rant up a f***ing storm and stay classy, queers.”
Source: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/10/the-group-preserving-queer-zines-of-the-past-to-propel-their-messages-into-the-future/
