Understand the LGBTQIA+ news: Black History Month guest editor joins, as our Gender Clinic Files investigation begins

This weekend, I'm very pleased to be handing the newsletter over for two important reasons.

First up, Phil Samba has joined as our Black History Month guest editor, marking the second year of our initiative to run a special commissioning scheme and focus on black queer creatives. It's great to welcome him back, after we recorded our podcast series The Other Blue Pill with him.

Phil has written this week's Queer Gaze, curated some great content recommendations, and is also working with us on a series of pieces over the coming weeks to bring you a Black History lens on today's current affairs.

Alongside this, Vic Parsons, our lead investigative journalist, has been working with What The Trans?! and Claire's Trans Talks to uncover a trove of data that lays bare just how structurally broken the UK's approach to transgender healthcare is - a series we're calling The Gender Clinic Files.

Whether you’re a long-term reader or new to QueerAF for our special editions all the way through October, it likely goes without saying all of this journalism and investment in talent costs a great deal. Luckily, as the UK's only press-regulated and not-for-profit LGBTQIA+ publisher, we're well-placed to ensure every penny is put towards our long-term mission to change the media.

Jamie Wareham
QueerAF Founder

Understand the LGBTQIA+ headlines and keep track of the latest queer content and perspectives. The QueerAF newsletter is written by Jamie Wareham, and a different queer creative each week.

💬 This week:

• The Gender Clinic Files: In the first of an investigative series exposing deep structural issues with UK Trans+ healthcare. We bring you the waiting times for every GIC in the UK - and explore why some have an average 224 year wait for a first appointment.
• Labour Conference: We look back at the comments about Trans+ lives made at the Labour conference and, with just the Greens and Conservatives left to go this weekend, we ask what conference season tells us about queer rights in the years to come.
• Black History Month: The Love Tank's Phil Samba joins as our Black History Month guest editor, writing their opening letter in the Queer Gaze, as well as taking over the spotlight and queer senses.

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

The Gender Clinic Files: Some people in Scotland will never get a gender clinic appointment on a 224-year waitlist

TL;DR: Most Trans+ people in the UK will wait more than a third of their adult life to get their first appointment at an NHS gender clinic, and some will never receive care, QueerAF can reveal. This is the start of a new series that exposes deep structural issues with the UK’s approach to transgender healthcare.