From Los Angeles Newsletter to National LGBTQ Media Brand: The Advocate’s Origins

The Advocate’s history begins in Los Angeles, where it emerged from a local response to police violence and became part of the country’s LGBTQ media landscape.

The publication was first issued in 1967 as a newsletter connected to Personal Rights in Defense and Education, an activist group known as PRIDE. Its creation followed a police raid at the Black Cat Tavern in Los Angeles on January 1 of that year. Demonstrations opposing police brutality took place in the months that followed, providing the immediate civic and organizing context for the newsletter.

Richard Mitch and Bill Rau joined PRIDE and worked with Aristide Laurent and artist Sam Winston to develop the publication. Mitch and Rau used the names Dick Michaels and Bill Rand, respectively, in connection with the newsletter’s early production.

What began as a Los Angeles publication eventually became The Advocate, an American LGBTQ magazine available by subscription and published every two months. The brand also includes a website. Together, the magazine and site cover news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities.

The publication describes itself as the oldest and largest LGBTQ publication in the United States. It is also identified as the only surviving publication of its kind founded before the 1969 Stonewall uprising in Manhattan, an event regarded as a major milestone in the LGBTQ rights movement. That timeline places The Advocate’s beginnings within an earlier period of organized LGBTQ protest and media-making, while also distinguishing its Los Angeles origins from the later national prominence associated with Stonewall.

The Advocate’s connection to Los Angeles is therefore more than an origin story in its publishing history. The city supplied the setting for the events and activism that led to the newsletter’s formation, linking LGBTQ journalism to local community organizing and resistance to police treatment. The publication’s later expansion into a national magazine and digital outlet did not erase that starting point: its institutional history remains rooted in a Los Angeles campaign that turned a community response into an enduring media project.

On June 9, 2022, Pride Media was acquired by Equal Entertainment LLC. The Advocate’s continuing identity as a magazine and website reflects the broader form established after its early newsletter years: a publication combining reporting, political coverage, commentary, and cultural coverage for LGBTQ audiences.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://web.archive.org/web/20070503112345/http://www.camprehoboth.com/issue09_14_07/past_out.htm - https://web.archive.org/web/20080129125434/http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/history/archive/advocate.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20100920070911/http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/magazines/the_advocate_does_not_pay_its_freelancers_167500.asp - https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2016/6/28/watch-history-advocate-americas-oldest-lgbt-magazine - https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-not-so-sudden-death-o_b_342725 - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/trishbendix/future-of-lgbt-media-out-advocate-autostraddle-into-grindr Image rights Photograph description: Former home of J. Carter Brown and Kitty Kelley This address is a single home which was divided, the portion on the left is hidden behind the tree and is the portion of the home in which Kitty Kelley lived*** 3035-3037 Dumbarton Ave NW John Carter Brown III (1934-2002) was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His family had been prominent since before the Revolution, providing the initial endowment f Creator: dbking from Washington, DC. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJ._Carter_Brown_Kitty_Kelley.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.