Windy City Times' first issue was Sept. 26, 1985. The staff was primarily from GayLife newspaper, which had been around since the 1970s and lasted until 1986. From the start, WCT focused heavily on Chicago-area HIV/AIDS news, politics, legislation, crime, culture and sports. It also covered national and world news important to the LGBTQ community. Around 1994, Outlines newspaper first went online, and when Outlines purchased WCT in 2000, the online push continued. For almost all of its 35 years, WCT was a weekly newspaper. About two years ago, it went to a biweekly format. Now, as WCT finishes this last regular print edition, the windycitytimes.com website will continue. It includes hundreds of thousands of articles and photos going back to the late 1990s, and will continue to be updated, along with its companion website chicagogayhistory.org .