Understand the LGBTQIA+ news: Which political parties will ban so-called 'Conversion Therapy'?

If your response to our campaign during Indie News Week over the last few days tells me anything - it's that:

• You want to see proper queer accountability journalism.
• You're fed up with celebrity gossip and clickbait being the main offering from news media about our community.
• You can see, as a not-for-profit that reinvests in the community and marginalised LGBTQIA+ creatives, we're a safe and committed pair of hands that will investigate the stories that matter most to the community.

To celebrate the week, which saw us join forces with over 50 indie news organisations to find answers to the crisis lack of investment in proper news journalism, we launched a membership drive to:

• Create a pot of funds we'll be investing in LGBTQIA+ journalists to write news, analysis and guides to the general election with DIVA.
• Help develop a new role at QueerAF to create week-round digestible social media content to help more people understand the news at this crucial time.
• Help QueerAF dedicate even more time to lobbying the media and creating formal routes for our creatives to get jobs so we can change the newsroom – to change the country.

Thanks to Indie News Week and the Public Interest News Foundation, every membership bought this month will be match-funded.

The more perks you choose, the better the discount you can grab:

• 10% off 'Supporter': Monthly / Annual
• 15% off '100% QueerAF': Monthly / Annual
• 20% off 'Editor': Monthly / Annual

You could join new members like Sarah, Trowan, Alexander, Andrea, Ambe and Flora who are just a handful of the 20 new members who have signed up in the last few days.

We need to hit 40 members to max out the match funding we can get. So, to have reached the 50% mark in just one week is amazing. But the drive isn't over.

And to show you we'll put our money where our mouth is - in today's newsletter, we've got the first of our election explainers to bring you. Plus, we've announced our scheme for marginalised writers who want to pitch articles for the election.

So please, if you can - join us or invite someone you know to become a supporter of QueerAF and help us support queer creatives to change the media:

I'm taking a few days off to sort a big flat move this weekend, so for this week's news I'll hand over to chief executive of DIVA Nancy Kelley for the explainer. The rest of the newsletter is from Rowan Gavin.

Understand the LGBTQIA+ headlines and keep track of the latest queer content and perspectives.

💬 This week:

• General Election. We bring you the first edition of Queer Election Watch, plus a reality check on the election stories of the week.
• Pride Around The World. Pride month, in stories and stats, from Seoul to Sao Paulo. We share the stories from across the globe that you may have missed in the first week of June.
• Queering Capitalism. Queer lives aren’t one-size-fits-all - so why should our clothes be? Ri Baroche takes us through the history and future of made-to-measure fashion in the Queer Gaze.

Skip the doom scrolling and support queer creatives instead. We are QueerAF – and so are you.

Conversion Practices Ban: Where do the parties stand in the 2024 general election?

TL;DR: Where do the different political parties stand on conversion practices? Ahead of the UK general election, Nancy Kelley dives into what each party has said about this important topic. Welcome to Queer Election Watch, a collaboration between QueerAF, DIVA and Trans+ History Week.