Homocore (zine)

Homocore

Homocore Issue #4 cover featuring Genderfuck artist Jerome Caja (June 1989)
Editor	Tom Jennings
Staff writers	Deke Motif Nihilson
Categories	Queer, Queercore, Anarcho-punk
Frequency	Monthly
First issue	1988
Final issue	1991
Country	United States
Based in	San Francisco
Website	WPS.com/Archives/Homocore

Homocore is an American anarcho-punk zine created by Tom Jennings and Deke Nihilson, and published in San Francisco from 1988 to 1991. One of the first queer zines, Homocore was directed toward the hardcore punk youth of the gay underground. The publication has been noted for popularizing the Queercore movement on the United States west coast.

The word 'homocore' was coined by G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce in the Toronto-based queer punk zine J.D.s. The term is a portmanteau of homosexual and hardcore, and is used as a description of their audience: disenfranchised queer hardcore punks. The word first appeared in J.D.'s issue #1 in 1985.

Tom Jennings borrowed the word 'homocore' after he and co-editor Deke Nihilson met Jones and LaBruce at the 1988 Anarchist Survival Gathering in Toronto. Inspired by the editors of J.D.'s, and other anarchists, Jennings and Nihilson returned to San Francisco and began the Homocore zine. The first issue was published in September 1988. Although their initial audience was the queer underground within the San Francisco area, letters published in later issues came from readers around the world. Homocore featured writers, artists and bands such as the Anarcho-punk group The Apostles, photographer Daniel Nicoletta, Chainsaw Records label owner and musician Donna Dresch, writer and founder of Lookout Records Larry Livermore, Bruce LaBruce and G.B. Jones. Steve Abbott first published excerpts of what would become the novel The Lizard Club in Homocore. Writing for The Village Voice, author Dennis Cooper started off his 1990 survey of the then-nascent queer zine scene with a review of this zine, noting "Homocore is the most generous and info-packed of the zines."