Celebrating a momentous 30 years as Ireland’s national LGBT+ press, (not to mention the longest running not-for-profit LGBT+ community news publication in the world!) GCN launches its essential exhibition, ‘Proof: 30 Years Of Gay Community News’, tomorrow in the Gallery of Photography.

Opening on the first official day of the  Dublin Pride Festival and running until July 1, the Temple Bar venue will host a community supported celebration of your magazine, highlighting 30 years of revolutionary change and advancement for and by our LGBT+ family.

With initial seed funding from The Community Foundation for Ireland and after a successful FundIt campaign that allowed us to raise nearly 12k thanks to the support of 194 wonderful pledgers, GCN’s founder, Tonie Walsh, has curated a must see experience which encapsulates our community’s incredible journey of bravery, strength and protest. Using archival material from the files of GCN, ‘Proof’ will tell a vital and empowering story of community advancement, driven by activists who envisioned an Ireland where all people were equal.

Since the successful result of the marriage referendum, the LGBT+ community has achieved a level of acceptance that may have seemed a distant possibility for our early crusaders, but we shouldn’t forget, this year also marks only the 25th anniversary of decriminalisation. In the years before 1993, GCN was a lifeline for some, especially those in rural areas who had no other connection to LGBT+ life, a fact that continues even up to this day.

As GCN’s editor, Brian Finnegan, says: “Despite the advances in technology which allow LGBT+ people to communicate and connect in different ways, and major advances in equality legislation, GCN continues to be a vital resource in Ireland. Looking back over three decades, it’s clear how GCN shaped the conversation around LGBT+ issues in Ireland, and particularly in advance of the marriage referendum in 2015. It’s also fascinating to see the diversity of lives and experience it has represented, and the positive mirror it’s held up to what was once an invisible community in this country.”

‘Proof’ will use a mixture of photography and installation to artfully capture our journey and yours.

Make a visit to ‘Proof: 30 Years Of Gay Community News’, an essential part of your Pride celebrations.