Seattle Gay News

The Seattle Gay News is a weekly newspaper aimed at the Seattle and Puget Sound area LGBT community in the U.S. state of Washington. It was founded in 1974 by Jim Tully and Jim Arnold. As of 2023, the SGN was distributed to every library in the King County Library System, Seattle Public Library System, and Pierce County Library System, as well as roughly 115 other locations in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, Spokane and Ocean Shores.

Former editor George Bakan was an LGBTQ+ activist in Seattle and acted as head of the SGN from 1984 until his death in 2020.

SGN files are preserved in the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. The SGN is currently archived at Yale University (Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library), University of Washington (Suzzallo Library) in Seattle, the Seattle Public Library (Central Library) and the Stonewall National Museum, Archive and Library in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Microfiche copies of the archives can be found at UW and the Seattle Public Library.

The Washington State Library (Olympia, WA) in partnership with the University of Washington (Suzzallo Library) and the SGN is digitizing the SGN through 2020 (although only in black & white). Much of the SGN has been uploaded but some issues have not been uploaded yet. The Washington State Library digital archives of the SGN can be viewed at https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=SGN Additionally, every issue of the SGN from inception in 1974 is being scanned in full color and uploaded and grouped in chronologically reverse order as well as by publication year for ease of access by its new publisher (referenced below), Mike Schultz at https://issuu.com/sgn.org.

In 2021, staff began restructuring the paper to improve its diversity and inclusivity. In the same year, SGN launched a podcast as part of the restructuring effort.

In 2023, the publication sold to Stratus Group LLC, owned by Mike Schultz. He switched to bi-weekly print publication, increased print quantities and expanded its geographic physical distribution points across Washington State. He also shifted the publication's focus to more robust online delivery of content with a website content management restructure and created the SGN online archive at https://issuu.com/sgn.org