Community media means delivering for the community.
Today, we're publishing the same impact report we delivered to one of our two independent regulators, the Office of the regulator of Community Interest Companies. The report shows how we've used our not-for-profit organisation's revenue to deliver in the interests of our community. As you read the list below, consider:
If this is what a small but mighty publisher can achieve in just a year without the profits and developed audiences the UK’s legacy gay media have - what more could we do if we had better funding, support and weight behind our work?
This month we're doing our annual LGBT+ History Month crowdfunder - and whether you're new, or a long time supporter I need you to know we're at a critical juncture.
This year's appeal is integral to our future.
So if you value a queer media organisation that keeps its receipts, publishes them, isn;t afraid of regulation or accountability from you - please consider supporting us.
In the meantime, let us show you what queer media that reinvests in its community does:
Everything we've achieved in the last year.
- Worked with 67 LGBTQIA+ creatives who have received paid commissions, writing skills sessions, mentoring, and, in some cases, equipment they can use to further their career using the hardware. One said, “I loved the encouragement to keep going and pushing me to complete something I had only dreamed about”.
- Supported Trans+ History Week CIC to launch as a social enterprise, formalise its structure, deliver it's event, content and production, and gain international acclaim as our first official launchpad project. Together we:
- Published, paid and mentored 30 Trans+ creatives
- Ran multiple in-person, hybrid and online events to educate, inform and entertain the LGBTQIA+ with lessons from Trans+ history.
- Reached 1 in 6 people in the UK with a pro-bono agency-led outdoor billboard campaign that platformed our creative's work on acclaimed national advertising spaces, including Outernet London, Westfield locations and by Wembley Stadium.
- Inspired vast media output about transgender history in both the mainstream press and massive social media accounts.
- We relaunched our podcast for another season, extending our mentoring support from journalism back into the audio industry, and facilitated multiple creatives receiving national radio bylines on Virgin Radio Pride.
- All the creatives who produced the podcast were bought and given professional radio equipment for them to deliver this. They got to keep this so they can use them as a freelancer, reducing the equipment barriers some creatives face getting into the industry.
- We remained the only LGBTQIA+ publisher to publish contributor data and spending amounts to the public as part of our mission to be transparent about how our media and publishing work happens. This year's report comes out on the 19th of February.
- We remain the only LGBTQIA+ publisher to be both registered as a non-profit and be independently regulated by both press regulator IMPRESS and the CIC regulator.
- Produced a documentary podcast for The Love Tank CIC and National Aids Trust about the history of PrEP in the UK and the lessons learned from the advocacy behind that significant shift in HIV prevention. We also ran a live event for the series, with a panel of experts and community questions which was held at, and supported the Common Press Bookshop.
- Published multiple exclusive journalistic investigations which set queer media agendas and galvanised action in the community by providing unique insights into transgender healthcare issues in the UK.
- Delivered our partnership with Inclusive Journalism Cymru to run a dedicated series of think pieces as part of a unique set of Queer Gaze commissions which began in November 2023. Three Welsh creatives benefitted from mentoring, training and published content.
- Ran content for LGBT+ History Month, which saw three creatives deliver a special series of content, that was cross-published with the official organisation and based on their research about the lessons learned from their named history icons. All received payment mentoring and were published in multiple formats.
- Ran a special content series for Black History Month, with esteemed activist Jason Jones as a guest editor, who provided additional mentoring on top of the support we provide to four black creatives. All were paid and received published commissions, investing in an incredibly marginalised section of the LGBTQIA+ community in the creative industries.
- Ran a successful membership campaign to fund a team of queer creatives to run our editorial and social media output matched and funded by the Public Interest News Foundation in June, with additional drives in May and November.
- Our founder and director delivered and took part in multiple industry panels to share our expertise and platform LGBTQIA+ creatives, as well as facilitating payment for this work, in different spaces including at Acast Pride, LGBT+ Consortium’s AGM and university lectures.
- Worked with other queer creative and non-profit organisations to support their output, and deliver additional commissions for our creatives, including with What The Trans and Diva Magazine.
- Hired a non-binary creative to develop our audiences and bring more lived experience to the team as a freelancer who works part-time with us.
- Reached a membership base of 400+ recurring paying members who fund our non-profit’s work and 6400+ newsletter readers who use our platforms to understand the LGBTQIA+ news and world.
And that's not all
This week marks QueerAF's third birthday - so here is a TL;DR of just some what our small but mighty publisher has achieved in just three years without the profits and developed audiences the UK’s legacy gay media have:
- Invested in, mentored, paid and published over 100 marginalised queer creatives. Six in ten of these are from a gender-diverse background, three in ten with disabilities.
- Launched Trans+ History Week to end the pernicious lie that being gender diverse is a modern contagion, with nationwide campaigns declaring that ‘We’ve Always Been Here, and Always Will Be’, hybrid events and international national media coverage.
- Been recognised by the World Health Organisation as a crucial part of the response to the Global North MPOX break out, delivering community journalism and holding the government to account.
- Launched the careers of journalists and audio producers by directly facilitating bylines and commissions with national media like Virgin Radio and the Metro.
- Championed grassroots news, investigated the NHS, exposed government failures and set news agendas for the UK LGBTQIA+ news that matters most to the community, not for clicks.
If that’s what we can achieve on a shoe-string, imagine what more we can do with proper funding?
We deserve a better media, and at QueerAF we’re not only modelling the change we want to see, but we’re working in and with the media so it better represents us.
There’s a better way for our LGBTQIA+ community to be seen, heard and celebrated in the media, and we’re making sure it’s going to happen. If you can, help us make that work sing louder and prouder than ever before 👇
