Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive

The Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA), is a national archive of press cuttings held at the Bishopsgate Library at the Bishopsgate Institute. It comprises campaigning material and other resources relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

The archive consists primarily of a collection of an estimated 200,000 press cuttings from the non-gay press covering all aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender experience from the late nineteenth century to the present and also a reference library of approximately 1,000 LGBT titles — non-fiction and fiction. The Library also houses full runs of Gay News (1972-1984) and Gay Times, the Gay News photographic archive and a selection of badges, banners and t-shirts from various LGBT campaigns.

LAGNA is a unique and invaluable resource for the study of LGBT history and culture. The collection covers a huge array of topics, for example the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee in the 1950s, the Gateways Club in the 1960s, the Gay Liberation Front and The Festival of Light in the 1970s, Clause 28 and the homophobic outbursts of James Anderton in the 1980s, the pink pound and gay villages in the 1990s and Todd Grimshaw's coming out on Coronation Street in the 2000s.

Robert Thompson is the Chair of the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive. He has been involved in the organisation since its previous incarnation as the Hall-Carpenter Archives, then based at Middlesex University since 1998.