Understand the LGBTQIA+ news: The right to privacy is becoming a critical ground in the legal fight for Trans+ rights in the UK

Last week, while wearing a cute new knit crop top - a young teenage lad bounded up to me to ask:

"Are you gay mate?"

I asked him how he worked that out, and he pointed to my top - then laughed and continued to cackle homophobically to his friends as they walked away.

I pondered this. Obviously, my top was as fabulous as I’d hoped - but aside from that, this was a very good example of the kind of everyday queerphobia that many of us deal with. And increasingly so.

With the attacks on Trans+ people - and the wider queer community - in the media, those who share anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments are feeling increasing permission to voice them in a way we haven't seen for some time.

They get that permission from seeing rank hate, misinformation and lies about our community in the media day after day.

That's why we set up QueerAF. To change the newsroom, to change the country.

Media change can feel insurmountable, but we strongly believe that - to borrow a concept from history maker Harvey Milk’s Gay Freedom Day speech in 1979 - the more editors, journalists and media owners that know us as their friends, colleagues and family, not the monsters they read about in the headlines, the sooner they’ll stop putting out so much hate.

That's why we're a non-profit that reinvests all of our funds in training a new generation of queer creatives to build media careers. And that's why we need your support in our matchfunded membership drive this Pride season.

🙏 10% off 'Supporter': Monthly / Annual
🏳️‍🌈 15% off '100% QueerAF': Monthly / Annual
✨ 20% off 'Editor': Monthly / Annual

You could join new members like Marie, Julie Sheppard, Frankie, Jason Ball, Fiona, Patrick, Beck and Katie Vincent, who are just a handful of the 28 new members who have signed up in the last two weeks.

We need to reach 100 members to maximise the match funding we can receive. To have reached the 30% mark in just over a third of the month is truly remarkable. But the drive isn't over, and we need to keep up the momentum.

I'm under no illusion that the attacks and hate we face on the streets are connected to the anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment in the UK peddled, pursued and pushed by some politicians and media.

This Pride month, we need to invest in the long term, and as well as modelling the change with output that does justice to our community's stories, we need to get as many queer folks as we can into the media, with the tools they need to change it. 

So please, if you can - join us or invite someone you know to become a supporter of QueerAF and help us give the LGBTQIA+ the information it needs to navigate the fight back against a growing anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment:

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:

• EHRC: We bring you fresh analysis of the criticisms the Equalities and Human Rights Commission is facing due to its advice on segregating Trans+ people. This week the chair was asked to defend its stance in parliament. 
• Welsh Creatives: Our mentoring scheme for creatives from an underrepresented and all-too-often forgotten area of the country is back with Inclusive Journalism Cymru. Details in the Spotlight. 
• Allies in the media: The better we understand the media, the better we can advocate for it to change. Dan Eglington sets out why anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric can be hard to challenge in the media - but with allies' support, can be changed.

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

EHRC says right to privacy doesn’t apply to Trans+ people, as European court says it does

TL;DR: In its annual scrutiny session at the parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee, the outgoing EHRC chair Baroness Krishwar argued that Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights didn’t apply to Trans+ people, just a day before Strasbourg affirmed it did.