I started QueerAF as a response to the bad practices I saw while working in gay media and mainstream media newsrooms.
We first began as a podcast when an editor told me to stop pitching 'gay stories' because there was no 'money' or 'audience' for them.
As a young, budding journalist - this was hard to hear. And its impact was huge. It made me think pursuing a career with our lives in mind was worthless.
So I did something inherently queer and set out to prove that editor wrong.
We quickly built an international audience, won awards and even picked up revenue along the way - all while giving queer audio producers, what was for most of them, their first paid audio credit.
No one should be told their lives aren't worth telling a story about.
Later on, working in gay media, I experienced a different barrier to telling the stories that our community wanted. Something that got in the way of what many incredible journalists were trying to deliver. We were told the stories that matter won't create enough clicks to make it worthwhile.
I didn't understand this then, but newsrooms created these awful experiences because they are locked into a system.
One that rewards stories that feed hungry divisive algorithms. All to serve enough ads to simply repeat the cycle over again.
It's a pattern I've seen play out repeatedly in the media since.
As a journalist and producer, I've seen newsrooms make cruel decisions. Content commissioned based on the clicks they'll drive, regardless of the harm they might have.
We need media that makes content because it's worthwhile to our community.
That moves the narrative forward instead of just using us as a tool to drive their ad revenue.
We believe there’s a better way for our LGBTQIA+ community to be seen, heard and celebrated in the media. Let’s rewrite the narrative and change media for good.
We relaunched in 2022 as a not-for-profit community interest company (CIC) that locked our revenue and assets into delivering for the LGBTQIA+ community - to address some of these issues.
We publish an annual transparency report which shows you where our money comes from, and who it goes to - on top of our reporting commitments to the CIC regulator. This report showed 6 in 10 of our writers come from a Trans+ and gender diverse background.
We helped set up Trans+ History Week, one of our launchpad projects, as an independent CIC, so it can - with Trans+ leadership in charge - invest in even more Trans+ creative talent across the media.
We became the first LGBTQIA+ newsroom to opt into the UK's strongest and Leveson-approved press regulator, IMPRESS.
We did all of this because being held accountable to the community and investing in it is the best way to create the power we need to make change.
It means we also have an independent complaint and whistleblowing process so we can be held just as accountable - as the organisations we hold journalistically accountable with our news output.
Our values are things we've been told 'aren't possible' within the media. So we've set out to show that change is possible, to take away their worst argument - that 'it can't be done'.
That's why we're building a platform driven by people, not adverts.
So, we can tell stories because they matter to the community, not for clicks.
Content for you and the LGBTQIA+ world, not advertisers.
All while we use our funds to develop a new generation of resilient, underrepresented creatives. Queer media professionals, who can go on to change the way stories about our lives are told.
So much of what we think and feel comes from the media. If we change the newsroom, we can change the country.
While our top-rated newsletter goes out each week to help you understand the LGBTQIA+ news, our real work happens behind the scenes.
We're working with editors, media organisations, and sector leaders to try to create formal routes for our alumni and contributors to build media careers while fostering better environments for LGBTQIA+ journalists to work in.
Our audacious project has garnered awards, broad support and an ever-growing coalition of media sector, queer professionals and community members behind it.
But creating journalism without adverts is a massive undertaking.
Which is why we're so grateful that the vast majority of our revenue comes from a growing community of paid QueerAF members.
It means our soft power isn't from advertisers and clicks. It's from you and the stories you want to see.
To help us continue to punch above our weight as a small indie organisation:
- By trying our free weekly newsletter: Skip the doomscrolling, understand the LGBTQIA+ world, and support queer creatives.
- Following our output on our Podcast, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn or X
- Or, if you can: Become a paid member of QueerAF, get the perks that come with, and get the opportunity to directly influence what kinds of stories and backgrounds we invest our funds in.
