When you, dear readers, pick up our humble paper, you see the final product of a collaboration akin to running a marathon while frantically spinning many plates.

Every week, by the will of whatever deity that looks fondly on us — caffeine-addicted, news-scrolling, cold-calling word fiends — we find a way to get this paper printed and into your lovely hands. By no means has this effort been easy. This has been and always will be a product of our passion for our community.

Our publisher, Angela Cragin, has been an exemplar of that passion.

Her father, our former publisher and editor-in-chief, George Bakan, passed on in 2020. He left the paper to his daughter. To suddenly be tasked with running a newspaper during a worldwide pandemic is a daunting call to action, but she took it on.

Speaking as a writer, I'll say that managing us can be like herding cats. Angela nonetheless led us forward into what you see today. Behind the scenes, she worked tirelessly to not only keep the paper running but to improve it in the process, hiring a diverse crew of new writers, boosting the paper's original reporting, and broadening its perspective. Her efforts ensured that the SGN, founded in 1974, nearly 50 years ago, would survive.

Angela saw not only the paper's historical value to the LGBTQIA+ community but also the value of our present-day work. She gave us a safe place to share our diverse identities and experiences. She gave us the opportunity to go out into our communities and report on what is important to us. These gifts are priceless.

This is Angela's last issue with the SGN. It is bittersweet to see her stepping down as publisher. Having cultivated friendships with her, the SGN staff and I will miss working with her.

Angela will no longer be guiding us forward, but she leaves a lasting impression to help light the way. We are unbelievably lucky to have had such an impressive woman to care for us and this paper and carry on her father's legacy.

We love you, Angela.

Read the upcoming issue to learn more about what's next for the SGN.