QueerAF Impact Report 2026: Everything we've done to invest in our community this year

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 forresearch 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 60+ 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.  

• Creatives this year reported feeling more confident and found our training and mentoring schemes very beneficial; one said, “I loved the joy and pride I felt while investigating and writing, and also finding it in readers as well. Feedback I got during the retro session was extremely valuable and helped me centre the focus of my article.”

• Supported Trans+ History Week CIC’s second year after our fiscal sponsorship in its first year. This included running the enterprise in CEO abscene for a number of months as well as going on to deliver event infrastructure, generating revenue and sponsorship, mentoring creatives to deliver official content and producing year-round social media and marketing support - all of which helped it gain international acclaim for a second year, as our first official launchpad project. Together we:

• Published, paid and mentored 20 Trans+ creatives to create official content, articles, podcasts and illustrations. The initaiative also worked with a dozen more at events, getting them paid opportunities
• Reinvested in the existing alumni network, helping several of those within the previous cohort get additional paid commissions
• Produced the annual Trans+ History Week workbook, mentoring five creatives to research and create the resource that with over 1000+ downloads, inspired events, commemorations and learning by organisations all over the world
• Supported the curation and production of 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 with Uncharted, that platformed our initaitive's message, with QR codes leading to our creative's work on acclaimed national advertising spaces in 600+ locations all over the UK
• Inspired a 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, with partners including Trans+ History Week, National Student Pride, Acast and Historical Homos, bringing community groups together.

• The podcast's previous season was nominated for another British Podcast Award for its impact as an initiative, and won Gold in the Changemaker category at the prestigious Audio Production Awards.

• All the creatives who produced the podcast this year 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.

• Our documentary podcast The Other Blue Pill, was featured on the homepage of Apple Podcasts for the entireity of June, bringing thousands of listens to a show that advocates for a better sexual healthcare system in the UK.

• 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 transparency report will be released on the 25th 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.
  

• Shortlisted for a number of awards including: UK Social Enterprise Awards (DEI and Justice awards), and the World Association of News Publishers, Best Newsletters in Europe as well as our Supreme Court coverage winning an Indie Media Maverick Award (Winner, Digital Journalism). Our launchpad initiative Trans+ History Week and our work for it, also picked up a highly commended award at the Rainbow Honours.

• 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.

• These investigations went on to set the tone for multiple parliamentary debates, and our Gender Clinics Files series - in collaboration with What The Trans and Claire's Trans Talks - saw the Scottish service respond publicly in an attempt to rebuke our numbers. They said the waiting list - in their view - wasn't 224 years, but merely 160+ years. We also understand that the Prime Minister has been told directly about this investigation.

• Was the only publisher in the entire UK media to hire a Trans+ person to respond to the Supreme Court ruling, which carried significant changes for this marginalised community. This piece generated over 100K impressions and clicks, and was widely circulated in the LGBTQIA+ third sector - making it one of the most-read resources on this change in the UK.

• Began a second cohort of mentoring in our partnership with Inclusive Journalism Cymru to run a dedicated series of think pieces as part of a unique set of Queer Gaze commissions. Three Welsh creatives are benefiting from mentoring, training and published content and also recieved an additional peer support and training session in a development of the scheme.

• Began our partnership with the Good Law Project which is enabling us - with complete editorial independence - to produce critical investigative journalism about the LGBTQIA+ community in the UK.
  

• Ran a special content series for Black History Month, with The Love Tank’s Phil Samba 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 increase our investigative output, matched funded by a private donor. Earlier in the year, our annual crowdfunder filled a critical gap in our finances ensuring we could continue for another year.

• Our founder and director delivered and participated in multiple industry panels to share our expertise, advocate for change in the industry and platform for LGBTQIA+ creatives, on mutliple occasions facilitating payment for this work across various spaces, including at Acast Pride.

• Began work with the LGBTQ+ Journalism Network’s founder to build towards a relaunch of the initiative as our next ‘launchpad project’.

• Ran media partnerships with National Student Pride and Sparkle Weekend to support the queer community initiatives.

• 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 Rainbow Migration.

• Reached a membership base of 600 recurring paying members who fund our non-profit’s work and 10,000+ newsletter readers who use our platform to understand LGBTQIA+ news.

And that's not all

This month marks QueerAF's fourth birthday as a community interest company (and this year is ten years as a podcast). For now, here is a TL;DR of just some what our small but mighty publisher has achieved in just four years without the profits and developed audiences the UK’s legacy gay media have:

• Invested in, mentored, paid and published over 150 marginalised queer creatives. Six in ten of these are from a gender-diverse background, three in ten with disabilities.
  
• Launched Trans+ History Week, and provided continued support to the now independent organisation 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 and national media coverage.
  
• Been recognised by the World Health Organisation as a crucial part of the response to the Global North MPOX breakout, delivering community journalism and holding the government to account. Alongside this, our podcast documentary for The Love Tank, The Other Blue Pill, has helped thousands of listeners understand the systemic problems with HIV and sexual health systems in the UK.
  
• Launched the careers of journalists and audio producers by directly facilitating bylines and commissions with national media like Virgin Radio and the Metro.

• Recent alumni successes include stable careers with national media organisations, major production companies, book publishing deals, and audio dramas on international platforms such as Audible. Though we've played a small role in their ultimate success – all of these examples are from creatives who have cited their QueerAF portfolio as critical to getting their next step on the ladder.
  
• 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. 
  

We've been doing that work, in an hostile environment, where it is increasingly difficult to fund, publish and get hold of balanced, nuanced journalism about LGBTQIA+ lives. 

Censorship of queer lives is rising, all over the world - from rules that will ban face masks at events like Pride, to algorithms filtering out our stories, and worse - AI slop, fuelling division with misinformation. 

But that’s what we can achieve on a shoestring - even in that enviroment - 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 👇