Over 90 issues spanning nearly the entire run of Lambda, UNC Chapel Hill‘s LGBQT student newspaper, are now online at DigitalNC. Publication of Lambda started in 1976 and ran until at least 2013. The paper began as simple newsletter for the UNC gay community, but later appeared in a number of formats, from an “activist newspaper” (Lambda January 1993), to a “LGBTIQ-Affirming Magazine” (Lambda Spring 2004), and finally to an online blog.

The issues now online constitute a valuable resource for those interested in LGBQT history at UNC Chapel Hill, in the greater Triangle area, and in the United States as a whole. Most of the writing within deals with topics like sexuality, identity, and politics at all of these levels. Many notable events, such as the deadly anti-gay assaults at Little River in Durham in April 1981, as well as the national debates around the issue of same-sex marriage in the early- to mid-2000s, are covered in detail.

Front Page of Lambda, Spring 2004

In browsing the paper’s many issues, one gets a distinct sense of the scope of the LGBQT movement throughout its history as well as the identities involved. This is exemplified by the progression of organizations that sponsored the paper over the years. Beginning with the Carolina Gay Association in 1976, the paper later became the voice of the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association; the Carolina Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians and Allies for Diversity (B-GLAD); The Queer Network for Change; and finally the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transsexual Student Association.

The newly digitized issues of Lambda are another addition to the already considerable amount of UNC Chapel Hill materials currently hosted at DigitalNC. For more information about Lambda and the various LGBQT student associations that form an important part of UNC history, visit The Carolina Story and its exhibit on UNC student organizations.