Welcome to the Online DPN Archive.

Diseased Pariah News was a humorous magazine about HIV/AIDS published in San Francisco from 1990-1999, in 11 issues, each with a print run of up to 5,000. Publisher Beowolf Thorne (b. Jack Henry Foster) and editor Tom Shearer initially produced it as a zine and surreptitiously photocopied the first issue in the basement of the Standford Medical Center, where Thorne had previously been an undergraduate. Here is a picture of them together just before Tom Shearer’s death.  Thorne died May 8, 1999, and here is his obituary, written by co-editor Tom Ace, published in POZ. Thorne’s notes, manuscripts, zines and various personal documents are housed at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society in San Francisco, CA.

In the sprit of DPN, this archive was created and is maintained by Tom Leger, in an effort to make DPN available to a wider audience, as well as researchers, historians and writers focusing on HIV/AIDS history. If there are any questions or concerns, or if you’d like to add anything to this site or summary, please write Tom at tleger at gmail dot com.

Issues 1-8 digitzed at the New York Public Library, November 2009.

Special thanks to Bill Dobbs.

Site design by Julie Blair.