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Bruce Seybert was 10 years old when he realized he was gay. Growing up in tiny Chesterfield, near Anderson, the only role models he could find were limp-wristed hairdressers and psycho serial killers.
He just couldn't relate.
So, nearly 20 years later, Seybert started a social organization for gays and lesbians in Indianapolis. To keep everyone up-to-date about the camping trips, dinners and other activities he planned, Seybert mailed out a monthly newsletter he produced with scissors and a copier.
From those humble beginnings, OUTlines was born in 1991. Now Seybert distributes about 10,000 copies of the free gay and lesbian news magazine in central Indiana each month. Revenue in 1997 was about $96,000 for the social organization, Out & About Indiana, and OUTlines.
Seybert doesn't plan as many social events these days. And he doesn't use that copier anymore.
But OUTlines' mission hasn't changed. It remains a source of news and a cultural connection for the gay and lesbian community. Seybert says he's filling a void he felt as a kid, when he had no access to books and magazines about gay culture.
"When I lived in Chesterfield, being in the closet ... it was impossible to find that kind of information," Seybert says. "That's what I was starved for, some kind of connection."
Seybert's magazine isn't alone in serving the gay market in Indianapolis. The Word is a monthly newspaper published here and...