QueerAF's LGBT+ History Month crowdfunder 2026

Aim

Expose the anti-trans machine, uncover Trans+ healthcare inequalities and deliver queer joy and activism digests, so you can fight back

The short version

Help us expose the anti-trans machine, uncover Trans+ healthcare inequalities, work with a dedicated Trans+ journalist and produce a queer joy digest, so you can see where we're winning, and crucially, how.

If we hit our crowdfunding goal by February 28th 2026, we’ll fulfil three pledges - chosen by our audience - to help LGBTQIA+ people get the information they need to fight back against rising hate:

• Ringfenced investigation fund: We'll track and expose anti-Trans+ organisations, lobbying and influence networks behind anti-LGBTQIA+ and gender-critical, transphobic campaigns and uncover even more Trans+ healthcare failures in the UK.
• Dedicated Trans+ journalist: Increase our investigations and explainers by increasing the resources for our lead investigative journalist so they can work every week.
• A monthly queer joy digest: We'll highlight community wins, activism and progress being made - including how to learn from this - so you're always connected to hopeful, winning narratives: The change we want is out there.

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Why help QueerAF? 

At QueerAF, we're different. We're the UK's only LGBTQIA+ publisher that’s both registered non-profit and press-regulated.

We know all too well how terrible so many of the mainstream media titles have been to our community. Even some of the gay press have been captured by a focus on clickbait and profits over community. 

At QueerAF, as well as reinvesting all of our revenue on our mission to 'change the newsroom, to change the country,' we've been investing in news and queer journalists in a way no other UK gay media has. 

In the past year our investigations have set the news agenda - and have been used to set the tone of debate in parliamentary debates about Trans+ rights.

But 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. 

We deserve better, and at QueerAF, we’re not only modelling the change we want to see, but we’re also working 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.

QueerAF is going to improve access to queer journalism, and as our audience is our most important editor - we've let our audience choose how we do this. 

Information is a tool for liberation, so it's little surprise our audience asked us to deliver even more of our investigations as the overall theme of our pledges. 

In the last year alone, our investigations and exclusives have:

• Exposed the 224-year wait list some Trans+ people face for adult gender care
• How under 25s make up more than two-thirds of waiting lists in the UK
• Revealed close ties between the health secretary and a parents' group that brags about abusing Trans+ children
• The £2M in lobbying and spending pro-conversion therapy groups have spent in the UK since successive governments
• Exposed the anti-Trans+ groups who were featured in the 'Section 28 2.0' relationships and sex education consultations
• Revealed a disproportionate level of suicides in young LGBTQIA+ youth

If we meet our goal, we'll double down on this work - and invest not only in bigger investigations - but into dedicated news about queer activism and win, so you're not only hearing about the difficult parts of being LGBTQIA+

Our pledges

1. Create a ringfenced investigation fund: We'll track and expose anti-Trans+ organisations, lobbying and influence networks behind anti-LGBTQIA+ and gender-critical, transphobic campaigns and uncover even more Trans+ healthcare failures in the UK.

2. Dedicated Trans+ journalist: Increase our investigations and explainers by increasing the resources for our lead investigative journalist so they can work every week.

3. Deliver a monthly queer joy digest: We'll highlight community wins, activism and progress being made - including how to learn from this - so you're always connected to hopeful, winning narratives: The change we want is out there.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made