I'll admit - I love being queer. I also get swept up, exhausted and burned out running QueerAF. But at the end of each week, I look back at what happened, and the picture feels very different.
This week alone I spoke to multiple parents of Trans+ kids who are fighting tooth and nail to ensure kids in the UK can grow up safe, free from bullying and able to live happy, healthy lives.
I met with activists who are ensuring that as many people as possible are educated about our history, so that we can shut down misinformation at its source.
And of course, since I last wrote to you, I saw 100,000 people march, scream and dance for Trans+ rights in the streets.
There is tough news in this week's newsletter that will set in motion years of anti-trans institutional rhetoric from the UK's Equality Watchdog. But there is also news of Trans+ grassroots organisations picking up the baton, and fighting back.
Our community, as tough and beleaguered as we may feel, is beautiful, full of rage, and with an intense creativity that I'd go out on a limb and say is unparalleled.
This week I also worked with several incredible journalists and creatives who have endless compassion and desire to uncover critical information.
Even when I’m feeling exhausted like I have this week, I am constantly thinking about how I can scale our work. How could I hire a whole team of journalists to run investigations? Where can I find funds to reinvest in schemes that get more creatives into media careers? What community tools could we make to get your stories out there, so they can change the world?
That's why I so often ask you, if you can, to sign up as a paid member. So we can fight on your behalf, and give you the information you need to fight back. And so, whether you choose to or can do that today or not, I hope you can take power from the positive news throughout this week's edition.
I'm filled with queer rage, creativity and passion because of every one of you who've signed up to read QueerAF. It shows me how much care and determination there is in being queer - and that's freaking awesome.
In Pride,
Jamie Wareham
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 Chair: Labour has overruled MPs who refused to approve their appointee to run the Equality Watchdog. Mary-Ann Stephenson, whose ‘gender critical’ beliefs are well documented, has been brought in to run the organisation.
- CQC Judicial Review: In a rare positive, a judicial review has denied a claim from a gender-critical nurse who sought to remove an "outstanding" review of the UK's only regulated provider of care to Trans+ youth.
- Collective action: Think globally, act locally. Carys Daniels explains how a Bristol-based movement has spread nationwide in the Queer Gaze.
Skip the doomscrolling and support queer creatives instead. We are QueerAF – and so are you.
Gender critical Mary-Ann Stephenson named as new EHRC chair as Government overrules MPs
TL;DR: Despite two different parliamentary committees expressing opposition to her appointment, Mary-Ann Stephenson has been appointed to the role of chair of the EHRC by the Labour government in a move which overrules MPs’ concerns. Stephenson has a well-documented history of gender-critical views
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