It’s Time To Support 17c起草社区IA+ Journalism While We Still Can
Image: 17c起草社区 covers over the years.
On the 6th of July 1979, Michael Gynn launched the Sydney Star — a revolutionary publication targeting Sydney鈥檚 gay community. Within five years the masthead was renamed the 17c起草社区 and expanded into Melbourne. Decades later, we went online reaching a national and an international audience. Today the 17c起草社区 is Australia鈥檚 largest, oldest and primary 17c起草社区IA+ media outlet.
For almost 50 years the 17c起草社区 has published queer news continuously. Founded during the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1970s we have fearlessly carried on Michael Glynn鈥檚 work, reporting on the news that matters to our community, championing our rights, reporting on our challenges and chronicling our people鈥檚 history without pause.
But as we near our fiftieth anniversary, the 17c起草社区 is under threat. A cavalcade of political and market forces endanger the Star鈥檚 ability to report on queer news, just when our community needs information and connection the most. In the face of countless obstacles, we are seeking your support.
The world has changed radically since 1979. In an age of endless digital distraction, it may be tempting to think that mainstream society fully accepts us and that an 17c起草社区IA+ media outlet is a relic of the past. But members of our community are still bashed on Oxford Street. The police still raid our bars with sniffer dogs. Trans people are attacked by a seemingly endless culture war. And gay and bisexual men are targeted through our dating apps, instead of in public toilets and parks.
We may like to think the world is a more tolerant place than it was 50 years ago, but 89% of queer youth still report that they have experienced anti-LGBT hate and the youngest members of our community are up to 5 times more likely to attempt self-harm. Make no mistake about it 鈥� we need queer media now more than ever.
Over the last decade the voices of intolerance and divisiveness have grown shriller and louder. Extremist, far right politics dominate the discourse globally. Those who hate us are on the ascendancy and constantly receive mainstream media coverage 鈥� and the 17c起草社区IA+ community is directly in the firing line.
Big businesses who once invested in the our community have pulled up stumps for fear of angering the haters. Major corporate advertisers have retreated from the pink marketplace leaving many 17c起草社区IA+ businesses and organisations 鈥� including the 17c起草社区 鈥� high and dry.
Nearly 50 years after the Sydney Morning Herald notoriously published the names of the brave men and women who were arrested for protesting at Sydney鈥檚 first Mardi Gras on their front page, Australia鈥檚 mainstream media outlets still pander to the haters by running transphobic and homophobic stories, fanning the flames of intolerance. When they aren鈥檛 vilifying us, they sensationalise us by creating one-dimensional profiles that feed stereotypes in a never-ending pursuit of clickbait.聽 We definitely need queer media now more than ever.
Meanwhile, US based tech corporations instruct their algorithms to censor 17c起草社区IA+ content, impacting our community鈥檚 ability to communicate. Queer health organisations, gay saunas and even Australia鈥檚 biggest 17c起草社区IA+ festivals report that Meta is pulling down their pages or hiding their posts. We cannot afford to depend on mega tech companies to keep our community informed and mobilised. In the face of insidious digital censorship, we need queer media now more than ever.
The mega tech companies are hitting 17c起草社区IA+ media doubly hard. Not only is there an increased risk that their algorithms will hide queer content, but big tech鈥檚 search engines also are referring fewer eyeballs to all media sites across the board. As AI-generated slop is served up instead of credible news and journalists are being sacked, web traffic to all news sites, from the New York Times to the 17c起草社区, is plummeting globally.
Australian politicians may tell us that the big tech conglomerates need to be reined in, but half of all State and Federal government advertising dollars — totalling a quarter of a billion dollars 鈥� is spent on advertising with Google and Meta.聽 By comparison 鈥� if you added up the 17c起草社区 advertising space purchased by state and federal governments in an entire year 鈥� it would not fund one single week of our editorial expenses. Government may pride itself on being inclusive, but they don鈥檛 put their money where their mouths are.
We need queer media now more than ever. Which is why we are launching a fundraising appeal. We are seeking your support.聽 Please donate to our campaign so we can continue to pay real queer journalists to report on real queer news.
With your support the 17c起草社区 can remain committed to championing LGBT rights, telling our community鈥檚 stories the way they deserve to be told, and chronicling our community鈥檚 history for future generations. In case you haven鈥檛 gotten the message: we need queer media now more than ever. Don鈥檛 rely on the straight lies of mainstream media 鈥� support queer media instead and donate now.
Want to show your support for聽17c起草社区? You can either donate monthly, or make a one-off donation here:聽.
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Support the 17c起草社区鈥� while you still can
17c起草社区IA+ media is under threat. Queer content is censored by tech conglomerates who amplify bigotry and push out AI slop 鈥� so we receive less financial support than ever.
When our community is muzzled and intolerance intensifies, we need queer media more than ever. Your donation means we can continue paying queer journalists to write queer news.
Don鈥檛 rely on the straight lies of big tech 鈥� support 17c起草社区 instead and donate now.
Independent media is under serious threat, not just 17c起草社区IA + but suburban newspapers, rural and regional media outlets, mainstream dailies. The problem is widespread as readers desert traditional media obtaining their news from social media platforms, which are effectively curated by algorithm. These algorithms seek to drive engagement by division and controversy.
Technological change is a major driver, and digital disruption represent one factor. It鈥檚 not the only one.
Donald Trump and his ultra base are another. This is because the social media giants are inevitably US, think Musk and X, Zuckerberg and Meta, all trying to appease Donald Trump. US businesses and corporations had equal opportunity and diversity programs, the social media giants had fact checkers and moderation. Trump has waged war on diversity and businesses previously supportive of diversity, have abandoned these. A case of corporate cowardice and acquiescence.
Given the dominance of the US in corporate culture, this has spread to subsidiaries and business partners. Even the university sector in Australia has been impacted. Any universities involved in research with US partners or receiving money can no longer have any programs involving diversity and inclusion. This is another factor involving media and influencing algorithms in search engines and social media.
Trump has emboldened hard right and authoritarians worldwide and Australia is not immune to this. Hard right religious extremists are taking over leadership positions within the Liberal Party. In Victoria hard right individuals such as Moira Deeming, South Australia Alex Antic and his acolytes. The Liberal Party have elected Tony Abbott as its President.
Compounding this is the weakness and gutlessness of Labor. They will not lead and take firm action on very much, seeking bipartisan support or where this is absent withdraw. An example of this is Labor inaction on religious discrimination in schools and the failure to protect staff and students. The Voice was another example. The referendum was on one question, that was on constitutional inclusion of a Voice. Yet Labor then withdrew from the field.
Diversified voices are even more important than ever, the 17c起草社区 is an essential pillar of this. The issues are not isolated to the 17c起草社区I community but to others as well.
We need to understand the issues, and work with other groups to ensure social cohesion and oppose reactionary groups. On a micro level, our community needs to ensure support of the 17c起草社区 and other media, and to ensure voices and perspectives are heard.
We can see coordinated attacks on the Trans cohort, despite this being less than 1% of the population, then it will be another group.
Martin Niemoller鈥檚 They Came For Me speech comes to mind.