QueerAF

We are an independent platform launching the careers of emerging and LGBTQIA+ creatives driven by people, not advertisers. Join media industry and LGBTQIA+ community leaders (plus cool folk like Joe Lycett) in supporting a new generation of queer creatives - who can work in, and with the media - to change it. We are QueerAF, and so are you. https://lnkd.in/d_-Fwvmt

Eight explicitly anti-transgender groups were featured in the targeted consultation that Wes Streeting, the UK Health Secretary, used to justify an indefinite ban on the use of puberty blockers for young trans people. Zoom out again, as Caroline Litman told QueerAF this week - a key audit into transgender suicides didn't include her daughter Alice, one of the most high-profile tragedies. Streeting used this report to again, justify the bans unlikely impact on mental health. You can also look to 59% of the organisations Streeting consulted with advising against it. And once you look at the safe, and continued use of puberty blockers in cisgender people, it becomes how clear this is an ideological decision, not one based on science and safety. Information is everything, and it's important in the age we live in to scrutinise and question it. For us to weigh up the facts, and see through the spin. I found this piece by Dr Natacha Kennedy in the Feminist Gender Equality Network a particularly valuable piece of analysis on its, lack of passage, through parliament if you're looking for more reading too. It's also linked in today's issue: https://lnkd.in/eegXN9WA As for what this story means for your DEI work, career or business? Subscribe to the weekly QueerAF explainer here on LinkedIn, and read this week's edition now 👇 #PubertyBlockers #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #Transgender

Understand the LGBTQIA+ news: Wes Streeting makes puberty blocker ban for trans youth permanent 👉🏽👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/eNYnSz-d

Puberty Blocker ban consultation featured eight explicitly anti-trans groups 👉🏽👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/eNxtQaHQ

How I used my love of feet to get a book deal 👉🏽👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/e3EWE9wY

This story is indicative of a wider cultural issue in the gay media, and for LGBTQIA+ journalists in the mainstream. Any media title not looking inwards today, is failing both its readers and staff. Journalists deserve safe and supportive work environments. As a journalist, I've seen newsrooms make cruel decisions. Content created based on clicks, regardless of the harm they have. Toxic bullying cultures. We need a media that makes content because it's worthwhile to our community, that nurtures queer talent 👇 https://lnkd.in/e2q56AfX Media change feels insurmountable, but if I've learned anything from running QueerAF it's that the tenacious talent of queer creative shows me everyday - that change is possible. It starts by modelling the change you want to see, and then inviting others to join you. And to use an old queer adage, I'm here to recruit you to that change. If you're working in the media, and agency or are a queer journalist wondering how to respond to this moment let's chat. My inbox is open. https://lnkd.in/e2q56AfX BBC article: https://lnkd.in/eF9Ta6bb

Understand the LGBTQIA+ news: Premier League failing LGBTQIA+ fans with failure to kick homophobia out of the game 👉🏽👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/e89CFee8

Premier League footballers refuse to take part in rainbow initiatives because of religion 👉🏽👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/eYdC3scn

This story is indicative of a wider cultural issue in the gay media, and for LGBTQIA+ journalists in the mainstream. Any media title not looking inwards today, is failing both its readers and staff. Journalists deserve safe and supportive work environments. As a journalist, I've seen newsrooms make cruel decisions. Content created based on clicks, regardless of the harm they have. Toxic bullying cultures. We need a media that makes content because it's worthwhile to our community, that nurtures queer talent 👇 https://lnkd.in/e2q56AfX Media change feels insurmountable, but if I've learned anything from running QueerAF it's that the tenacious talent of queer creative shows me everyday - that change is possible. It starts by modelling the change you want to see, and then inviting others to join you. And to use an old queer adage, I'm here to recruit you to that change. If you're working in the media, and agency or are a queer journalist wondering how to respond to this moment let's chat. My inbox is open. https://lnkd.in/e2q56AfX BBC article: https://lnkd.in/eF9Ta6bb

Coming out as both fat and queer 👉🏽👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/eAHBEutT