page_title: Gay Women's Alternative
section_title: Advertising
hierarchical_section_title: Gay Women's Alternative / Advertising
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the logo of the Gay Women's Alternative, INC Washingon, D.C. (1981-1993) created by the board members of the GWA and distributed for the LGBT community in DC. The logo was present on all flyers and ads.
context_page_description: The Gay Women's Alternative, DC was an incorporated social-educational non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the cultural, intellectual, and social lives of lesbians of the Washington, DC area. The GWA was formed in 1980 to provide the DC lesbian community with an alternative and safe space to socialize and discuss feminist and educational topics concerning the lesbian and gay women population. The group met every Wednesday evening from 8 pm to 11 pm at the Washington Ethical Society near Silver Spring, MD. Weekly programs covered topics such as, "Organizing Your Finances for Success," "Lesbian Couples: How Different are we?" and "Women and Wellness: A Feminist Approach to Health Care". Speakers included black poet Audre Lorde, artist Joan E. Biren, television journalist Maureen Bunyan, and comedian Kate Karsten. The GWA held several dances, including the annual lesbian spring dance and the Spring Cotillion.
context_section_description: The GWA placed most of their advertisements in local gay media, Washington Blade, The Crescent (a Women's Community Bulletin), Sapphire Sapphos newsletter, Diplomat Magazine, and in a monthly newsletter sent out to the GWA's mailing list  Despite the major role GWA played within the lesbian community in DC, Washington Blade did not cover the GWA events as well as the women would have hoped. In the letter to the editor section of the Washington Blade, a concerned reader wrote:
  The Washington Blade has consistently been lacking in its coverage of GWA events. GWA is one of the most important social and educational networks in the Lesbian community. Your May 3, 1985 review on the GWA First Annual Conference featuring Maureen Bunyan as keynote speaker was "Sparse" to say the least  ... the Blade could better show its support of the Lesbian community with more complete and consistent coverage of the GWA organization and other lesbian interests.
  Based on "Minutes of the Board Meeting" notes, in 1987, however, it is noted that the publicity and coverage of GWA events in Washington Blade increased significantly.
  Most of the outreach occurred at the meetings and Gay pride. Other sources of outreach was spent targeting new members within Gay and Lesbian groups at Universities, North east Gay/Lesbian Student Association conference, and at local gay-owned shops such as the Lambda Rising bookstore. A panel was held at the University of Maryland Gay and Lesbian Student Union in March 1988, featuring a member from the GWA.
caption: GWA's logo
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:06:21 16:58:47", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10621", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "900", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "900"}