Gay Sunshine was a radical underground newspaper from Berkeley, created for the gay community as an alternative to the more conservative gay press, like SIR’s magazine Vector and to the existing underground press in Berkeley, like the Berkeley Barb and the Berkeley Tribe, which did cover many gay issues, but wasn’t created for the community. However, the goal of Gay Sunshine was the explore the intersecting radical politics of the Bay Area, not to be a single issue newspaper like past conservative gay publications. 

Who Needs it? What is the value of a gay newspaper? I mean, is there, mere instance of homosexuality enough of a common purpose around, which to create a newspaper? If homosexuality is really nothing different than something like lefthandedness, then the creation of paper for homosexuals makes no more sense than a newspaper for lefthanders. And where a newspaper for lefhanders would be of special value only to tell its readers where to find the appropriate kind of monkey-wrench, so would a newspaper for gays really be good only to tell where the hottest sex books are sold and where most other gays are getting together. Maybe there’s a need for that sort of thing. But I used to think a gay newspaper would also serve another purpose— that of being an exercise of a basic component of freedom Gays, I felt need a free press to protect their rights. Since all gays are oppressed by the society, I thought, a gay newspaper would be a powerful tool in the homosexual fight for equal rights, as it would be a catalyst that could call forth the political potential of a subculture such as the one in San Francisco that constitutes more than 10 percent of the total population. Such a newspaper could wield a substantial amount of political power, the kind of power that is needed to protect the rights of the citizenry against the blatant kinds of atrocities that are common to come down on homosexuals. Existing gay publications— such as the San Fransisco Free press on one end and SIR’s Vector magazine on the other — almost deliberately appeal to only one section of the total gay community in the area. That’s the way the power-that-be want it. They want to keep the city’s 90,000 homosexuals divided amongst themselves so that they can’t be of any noticeable political importance. Such publications that play into the hands of this mentality — that perpetuate the stupid haggling over whether or not “gay” is an appropriate word or whether or not a naked body is fit material for the expense of printer’s ink — are not newspapers in the sense of actualizing the right to free press. They are really only what is known in the trade as “house organ” publications that serve the interests not of the total populace, but of an esoteric club, organization or splinter group. The question remains whether or not a genuine gay newspaper is a possibility. I have come to feel that it is not — not, that is, simply as a gay newspaper. My thinking goes like this: — Freedom equality and justice are all political categories. —Homosexuality is not a political category, any more than left-handedness is. —Oppression is a political category. —Not all homosexuals are oppressed. They all are, but, then, many refuse to believe it. By living double lives, accepting themselves as sex freaks therefore obligingly hiding their activities from free and public exercise, many feel they can function as “free Americans” like anyone else, and they are content with this. They claim they are oppressed because they are gay (the gods, or fate, or their parents are the evil oppressors), so they believe that the unhappiness they experience in the homosexual dimension of their lives (loneliness, fear of aging, superficiality) is due to the inevitability of their lamentable condition, rather than due to a social, political mentality of across-the-board oppression of all things not white, straight, middle class, pro-establishment. —Therefore, a newspaper trying to serve the interests of the total gay community could not be a newspaper that speaks to the political categories of freedom and justice. —What is needed is a newspaper that will represent those who understand themselves as oppressed— politically oppressed by an oppressor that not only is down on homosexuality, but equally down on all things that are not white, straight, middle class, pro-establishment. Such a newspaper should call together all those who would see themselves as oppressed in this way. It should resist the divisive tendencies to split over little words, tastes in art, or the manners of small groups of individuals. It should harken to a greater cause— the cause of human liberation, of which homosexual liberation is just one aspect—and on that level made its stand. Nick Benton.

Nick Benton, “Who Needs It?,” Gay Sunshine, August-September 1970.

What is needed is a newspaper that will represent those who understand themselves as oppressed— politically oppressed by an oppressor that not only is down on homosexuality, but equally down on all things that are not white, straight, middle class, pro-establishment… It should harken to a greater cause— the cause of human liberation, of which homosexual liberation is just one aspect—and on that level made its stand. (1)

An article written by Konstantin Berlandt in Gay Sunshine from September 1970, “Fly Oakland,” demonstrates the growing tide of Gay radicals in the East Bay rejecting the gay nightlife scene in San Francisco and turning towards local bars. Berlandt reviews gay bars in Oakland, and the one, The White Horse, in Berkeley. 

Oakland — Golden Dirty Straight City Suburb on the East Bay. Everything is defined in terms of San Fransisco. Do they every say “West Bay?” San Francisco— Gay City of the Universe. Easy Bay Gay commuters. Last month Gary and I visited the Oakland Gay bars. Grandma’s House, 12th St. Near the museum-bar restaurant. The manager told us to stop distributing our leaflets for the dance. We gave them out quickly and left. At Berry’s 352 14th St. down town, pseudo-dirty-old-men bought us drinks. “I admire what you hippies are doing, but don’t use violence, please,” said one man in a suit. I also talked about organizing with a young hospital worker who said he would come to the Gay Liberation Dance in Berkeley. Only a few people at the InBetween, 2325 E. 14th St.— black queens and a drag. Soul music juke box and slow dancing. Slow dancing also at the Manhole, 6534 Foothill Blvd., to a live band. Women and men. Small, crowed, A Black woman said, “Right on, brother, I’ll be there,” when she saw the raised fist on the dance leaflet. Almost no one at Lou and Al’s 23rd and Telegraph, a Gay Woman’s bar, Carnation, 1260 13th Street, was just closing. The two women who cut the doors we saw again at the Exit, 3333 Lakeshore, Oakland’s biggest Gay bar. Rendezvous reflections. Straight Gay crowd. A freak from the band said hello on his break. “Nice to see some real people here,” he related to our hair. “We’re all real,” we said. And don’t forget the White Horse 6547 Telegraph, Berkeley’s only Gay bar and located on the edge of Oakland. Gay freak center. Juke box new black light posters on the walls. 85 cents for drinks, hassles with Ruthie, the bar’s chic hostess, if you touch or kick your shoes off. She doesn’t like freaks and complains the dancers don’t buy enough drinks. I met Russian History Professor Martin Malia in there one night— an old friend who as a Publisher’s Board member appointed by the administration had opposed my promotion to City Editor of the Daily Californian. I had a bad reputation since my series on homosexuality. “Hello,” I said to him in the bar. He stared at me blankly. “My name is Konstantin.” “Konstantin, who?” “Konstantin Berlandt.” He shrugged and turned away. What have you written about the oppression of homosexuals in Russia, Martin? Your own people are dying and you’re chronicling the kings.

Konstantin Berlandt, “Fly Oakland,” Gay Sunshine, August-September 1970.

(1) Nick Benton, “Who Needs It?,” Gay Sunshine, August-September 1970.