Pitches wanted for Trans+ History Week | ~20 to 30 cents per word
Added 2025-01-24 18:48:43 +0000 UTCCOMPANY/PUBLICATION: QUEERAF
Deadline: 16 February 2025
Trans+ History Week is a week-long reflective period to learn and celebrate the momentous and millennia-old history of transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and Intersex people. Trans+ History Week is a social enterprise to ensure its activity benefits the community and a QueerAF Launchpad project.
In its second year, we're investing in 20 Trans+ Creatives to help us mark the week by making official content.
It begins on May 05 2025, the 92nd anniversary of the Nazi raid on the world’s first trans clinic. It's the week they tried to erase us. It's the week we will be remembered. This is when our official article and illustration content will come out.
We're investing in 20 Trans+ creatives to create official content for Trans+ History Week by writing, producing audio and creating illustrations
There are paid commissions available for:
7 Writers and journalists
7 Illustrators and artists
6 Audio and podcast producers
All of these opportunities are to create content - but it's not just about capturing history. Successful pitches will detail what lessons we can learn from history.
History is a tool for liberation - these commissions will help our community understand what the stories teach about us about our future.
A Trans+ team of community commissioners will judge all pitches.
We're particularly interested in hearing from unpublished, marginalised and emerging Trans+ creatives for whom these schemes are designed.
The stories will all come out in the build up to, during and after Trans+ History Week, so you should be prepared to turn the content around within the proposed timelines for each scheme.
All commissions will be subject to QueerAF contributor guidelines which you accept by submitting a pitch. Please read them before submitting a pitch.
WHAT KINDS OF STORIES ARE WE LOOKING TO TELL?
The USP of our content is not just telling history - but sharing insights on what we can learn from it. Succesful pitches will be focused on what we can learn from the history story you want to tell.
Trans+ History Week develops guidance around four lesson themes each year.
That full 2025 guidance is downloadable now and is full of loads of ideas for the kind of stories we're telling this year.
This guidance is designed to make it easy for anyone in the LGBTQIA+ sector, media and organisations to talk about Trans+ history.
Each lesson theme has a topic this year:
We’ve always been here: The Māhū people in Hawai’ian and Tahitian culture
We can’t be erased: Ballroom Culture
We’re stronger together: Lynn Conway and the Successful Trans Man archive
We’re more than Trans+: Engineer Roberta Cowell
We're interested in hearing pitches about these topics, but we're interested in going beyond them in the breadth of our official content. Keep this in mind when coming up with your ideas.
FOR WRITERS
We're looking for pitches for 700-1000 word history articles, we'll commission seven in total - one for each day of Trans+ History Week
You'll get £170 to cover your time
Each commission will come with QueerAF's unique communication and journalistic 'Retro' skills session - described as like "therapy, but for your writing" - designed to put you in charge of your edit.
They should be 'think pieces' in format which aims to be thought-provoking and speculative. They will consist chiefly of background material and analysis and can contain some opinions.
We're looking to tell history stories, but we're interested in focusing on the lessons from them.
We're looking for your perspective on history, so the topic you pick will be strongest if it's based in your experiences and viewpoint.
To pitch, you'll need to provide some examples of previous work, a working headline and four to five bullet points about what your article will cover.
One of these bullet points should tell us how the piece will conclude with what learning there is from this history lesson. Here are some examples.
You'll find out if you've been successful towards the end of February. You'll meet your matched illustrator at the start of March. Work will take place in March, with the first draft due mid-way through the month, and the final one towards the end.
WHAT IS QUEERAF?
We help you understand the LGBTQIA+ world and support queer creatives to change the media. We're a not-for-profit publisher.
We're an award-winning independent platform launching the careers of emerging and underrepresented LGBTQIA+ creatives driven by people, not advertisers.
Ultimately, QueerAF is a platform where creators, journalists and producers can get paid and commissioned directly by the QueerAF community. This while we mentor you to build a career, work in the industry - and then change it.
We're a not-for-profit and IMPRESS-regulated publisher who has locked our profits and assets into the LGBTQIA+ community.
We're here to invest in queer creatives and help QueerAF talent succeed - just like we're doing with our first launchpad initiative - Trans+ History Week.
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CONTACT INFORMATION:
Submissions: Via the webform
Website: https://www.wearequeeraf.com
TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:
Learn more about the publication: QueerAF is a British nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ creatives and providing in-depth coverage of queer issues. It offers a free weekly newsletter and an award-winning podcast that explore LGBTQIA+ news, culture, and personal stories. The platform aims to empower emerging queer voices and foster a more inclusive media landscape. More information here.
Read through a selection of recent articles/stories on its website.
Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook and at SuccessfulPitches.com.
Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a few lines highlighting your writing experience, relevant credentials and publication credits; and (3) links to your strongest work or portfolio, and online profile.
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