Pitch for Trans + History Week

Help tell the Trans+ history lesson we never had

Trans+ History Week is a week-long reflective period to learn and celebrate the momentous and millennia-old history of transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and Intersex people. Trans+ History Week is a social enterprise to ensure its activity benefits the community and a QueerAF Launchpad project. 

In its second year, we're investing in 20 Trans+ Creatives to help us mark the week by making official content.

It begins on May 05 2025, the 92nd anniversary of the Nazi raid on the world’s first trans clinic. It's the week they tried to erase us. It's the week we will be remembered. This is when our official article and illustration content will come out.

We're investing in 20 Trans+ creatives to create official content for Trans+ History Week by writing, producing audio and creating illustrations

There are paid commissions available for:

• 7 Writers and journalists
• 7 Illustrators and artists
• 6 Audio and podcast producers

All of these opportunities are to create content - but it's not just about capturing history. Successful pitches will detail what lessons we can learn from history.

History is a tool for liberation - these commissions will help our community understand what the stories teach about us about our future.

A Trans+ team of community commissioners will judge all pitches.

We're particularly interested in hearing from unpublished, marginalised and emerging Trans+ creatives for whom these schemes are designed.

We're based in the UK, and our priority will be towards UK creatives where our mission to change the media is focused. You'll need to participate in meetings during GMT working hours (10am-6pm) if you live outside the UK and are chosen to take part.

The stories will all come out in the build up to, during and after Trans+ History Week, so you should be prepared to turn the content around within the proposed timelines for each scheme.

What kinds of stories are we looking to tell?

The USP of our content is not just telling history - but sharing insights on what we can learn from it. Succesful pitches will be focused on what we can learn from the history story you want to tell.

Trans+ History Week develops guidance around four lesson themes each year.

That full 2025 guidance is downloadable now and is full of loads of ideas for the kind of stories we're telling this year.

This guidance is designed to make it easy for anyone in the LGBTQIA+ sector, media and organisations to talk about Trans+ history.

Each lesson theme has a topic this year:

1. We’ve always been here: The Māhū people in Hawai’ian and Tahitian culture
2. We can’t be erased: Ballroom Culture
3. We’re stronger together: Lynn Conway and the Successful Trans Man archive
4. We’re more than Trans+: Engineer Roberta Cowell

We're interested in hearing pitches about these topics, but we're interested in going beyond them in the breadth of our official content. Keep this in mind when coming up with your ideas.

The opportunities

For Writers

We're looking for pitches for 700-1000 word history articles, we'll commission seven in total - one for each day of Trans+ History Week

• You'll get £170 to cover your time
• Each commission will come with QueerAF's unique communication and journalistic 'Retro' skills session - described as like "therapy, but for your writing" - designed to put you in charge of your edit.
• They should be 'think pieces' in format which aims to be thought-provoking and speculative. They will consist chiefly of background material and analysis and can contain some opinions.
• We're looking to tell history stories, but we're interested in focusing on the lessons from them.
• We're looking for your perspective on history, so the topic you pick will be strongest if it's based in your experiences and viewpoint.

To pitch, you'll need to provide some examples of previous work, a working headline and four to five bullet points about what your article will cover.

One of these bullet points should tell us how the piece will conclude with what learning there is from this history lesson. Here are some examples.

For Illustrators

We'll be matching Illustrators up with the seven successful journalists to bring their history stories to life in an illustration

• You'll be paid at a rate of £250
• You'll bring to life a history story told in an article by one of our commissioned journalists and writers.
• You'll be provided with a draft of the article and some background material to produce your illustration - which can be created in your preferred style but will need to be submitted digitally if created 'offline'
• It will primarily designed for the article in a landscape format, with a 'safe' portrait area for social media use. It will be used in other Trans+ History Week and QueerAF marketing materials.
• We'll use the illustrations in campaigns for the week on socials, alongside the articles and, like last year, on billboards and massive screen places like Outernet, elevating your work and credits across national media.

To pitch, you'll need to provide some examples of previous work and answer a couple of questions on what this opportunity will mean for you and why you're passionate about Trans+ History.

Here is what those collaborations looked like last year.

For Audio Producers

We're looking for pitches for 20-30 minute mini-documentary style podcast episodes in the format of the award winning QueerAF podcast series.

• You'll be paid at a rate of £500, and be provided with audio equipment you can keep for life to help produce the episode.
• Each commission will come with QueerAF's unique 'pitch to invoice' mentoring process including a 'Retro' skills session designed to help you build your audio production skills, as well as put you in charge of your edit.
• You will host and produce a scripted episode with audio from one main interviewee and at least two supplementary voices. They will contain some sound design, and the QueerAF team will support you with the executive production and mastering of this.
• We're looking for your perspective on your topic, and the Trans+ history that informs it, so the topic you pick will be strongest if it's based in your experiences and viewpoint.
• The best pitches will blend a mixture of learning about sexuality, romantic orientations and gender identity (whether your own, or in a broader community way) with lessons and stories from Trans+ history.
• Remember our USP is about using Trans+ history to inform our present, with active and clear lessons for now - making it clear what the overall takeaway will be in your pitch is critical. Your pitch should tell us how the piece will conclude with what learning there is from the history.

To pitch, you'll need to provide some examples of previous work, a working title for your episode, four to five bullet points about what your podcast will cover, and the 'dream' guests you'd interview - plus some backup suggestions.

You can be early on in your audio editing career, but you should be prepared to edit in Adobe Audition and have a basic understanding of how to use it. You can edit on a different platform if you are highly proficient in it.

We encourage you to listen to at least three different QueerAF podcast episodes to get a feel for what they sound like before pitching.

They have a unique sound and feel, and each episode is hosted by a different queer creative. They are narratively scripted documentaries, not interview podcasts, so make sure your pitch matches our format.

Here are examples from last year's series.

The guiding principles of our official content:

This week is about apply learnings from Trans+ history in our present.

All the stories we tell will be guided and ensure:

1. Our joyful stories are just as important as our traumatic ones.
2. All stories have a learning we can apply in our present.
3. Our intersectional community guides commissioning through tools and forums.

For even more inspiration, check out these articles:

It’s time for the Trans + history lesson we never had

Introducing Trans+ History Week: Knowledge of our past is fundamental to our liberation. It’s how we shut down the lie we’re a modern invention

QueerAFMarty Davies

This Nazi book burning happened at world’s first trans clinic

Book burnings are a historic image many of us recognise. But the connection to the transgender community is little known.

QueerAFMarty Davies

We’re launching a Trans + History Week. Join us

Let’s collect, platform and share trans+ history stories and, crucially, make them readily available.

QueerAFJamie Wareham

What is QueerAF?

We help you understand the LGBTQIA+ world and support queer creatives to change the media. We're a not-for-profit publisher.

We're an award-winning independent platform launching the careers of emerging and underrepresented LGBTQIA+ creatives driven by people, not advertisers.

Ultimately, QueerAF is a platform where creators, journalists and producers can get paid and commissioned directly by the QueerAF community. This while we mentor you to build a career, work in the industry - and then change it.

We're a not-for-profit and IMPRESS-regulated publisher who has locked our profits and assets into the LGBTQIA+ community.

We're here to invest in queer creatives and help QueerAF talent succeed - just like we're doing with our first launchpad initiative - Trans+ History Week.

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