A note from us.
A few days before this issue of Gay Times Magazine went to print, I walked onto the stage of the Benjamin West Theatre at The Royal Academy in London and unveiled a year long project from GAY TIMES. Amplifund is a new way of thinking about charity, a new way of thinking about philanthropic communications and a new way of thinking about LGBTQ media around the world. The pressure was no doubt high. I hope as one of our closest audience members and readers, you’ll have seen the progress we’ve made as a brand over the last few years, but this felt like the ‘turbo boost’ to an already brilliant start to 2019.
Amplifund is all about empowering LGBTQ media and activism in places where it’s challenging to be queer. And while our mission here is about amplifying diverse queer voices, in other areas of the world we rarely hear any queer voices being brought to the surface.
The project, over time, gathered hearts and minds of LGBTQ people across our industry – whether members of the press, activists, media agencies, or brand. It felt like we were on to something bier than we first expected. So I want to start this note by thanking all of the hundreds of LGBTQ people and allies around the world who have worked tirelessly to bring this initiative to life. The power of shared human spirit is quite phenomenal, and I hope as a reader, you can see the passion and excitement behind such an important project.
We’ve launched Amplifund in partnership with LGBTQ human rights charity GiveOut that aims to amplify queer voices to global audiences. Rather than attempting to replicate the work that’s been done in the United Kingdom, and pushing our own experiences and view points on others, we want to empower and support the people who are already fighting for queer liberation in their countries and truly understand what needs to be done to achieve equality for our LGBTQ siblings who exist there. We announced Amplifund to an audience of community leaders and LGBTQ activists, including those at the forefront of the three incredible partners Amplifund will be supporting from launch; J-FLAG, IraQueer, and Pink Armenia.
J-FLAG is the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, who last year celebrated their 20th anniversary. The organisation works for the human rights of LGBTQ people in Jamaica, as well as offering legal reform and advocacy, education, social services and support. They also organise Pride in Jamaica, which brings together queer Jamaicans in a week of celebration, reflection and visibility, and part of their goal is to raise awareness of more positive stories in the country – not just the negativity we hear of in the news. “We do have problems,” J-FLAG’s senior advisor Glenroy Murray said at the launch of Amplifund. “But we also have stories of resilience. We do have stories of Pride.”
IraQueer, meanwhile, are working to empower Iraq’s queer people by raising awareness of the challenges they face, celebrating identities, pushing for LGBTQ rights, and also providing essential safe housing to LGBTQ people fleeing violence in the country. So far, they’ve supported over 200 people in their asylum claims. “What we want to do, we cannot do without each other because each group has access to resources and spaces,” founder and executive director Amir Ashour said of IraQueer’s new partnership with Amplifund. “To move forward as a queer community, we need to move together.”
Pink Armenia, as the name suests, are fighting for human rights in Armenia, with the goal of achieving a society where everyone is protected and accepted regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. Their values are diversity, equality and safety – which are values we believe everyone should share, regardless of where they are in the world. LGBTQ people face legal and societal obstacles in all three of these countries, and Amplifund will help the people already doing incredible work to continue pushing for liberation for everyone, while helping the queer communities to thrive.
I opened this letter by talking about a new way of thinking for projects such as Amplifund, and this also importantly applies to the way we’ll be looking to fund and resource our partners. As well as the way we speak with and about our partners, we’ll be looking at three specific avenues for funding. First, there’s individual donations from those who feel inspired (and able) to contribute to the global queer movement. Secondly, you, our readers, will be contributing simply taking out applicable subscription products, as a portion of each and every sale will be funnelled into the initiative.
Lastly, and perhaps the most unique, a percentage of every brand partnership we make will go towards Amplifund. That will happen automatically, with no action required by our valued commercial partners. This is important because it means when any brand chooses to connect authentically to the LGBTQ community through any work with GAY TIMES, that same value will be passed on to Amplifund to allow queer people around the world to see themselves better represented. Whenever a brand chooses to take a stand here in the Global North, where most of our work takes place, they also choose by proxy to support people in our community around the world - and we believe that is a commitment and step-change in how we understand, create and distribute media. One thing I fundamentally believe is that we all want to be seen for who we are. Amplifund will enable our partners to continue their work, empowering queer people to feel understood, recognised and heard in all the places we call home.
In order to communicate the launch of this important project, we launched Amplifund’s first brand campaign across national press and digital billboards across the United Kingdom this Pride Month. This initiative is not only about raising awareness and acceptance, it’s also a chance for us all to reflect on the current state of our global community. This campaign is so important to us because it’s all about challenging the perception of what it means to be LGBTQ both in the UK and around the world, echoing back to our provocative way of thinking about our responsibility to each other in the community. Our campaign reflects the censorship of LGBTQ life around the world, including the UK, by using a pixelated rainbow flag to hide scenes showing authentic everyday queerness. Over the course of the campaign different LGBTQ flags will be used to highlight the different communities and identities that the fund will benefit.
I want to wish everyone in our community a very happy Pride Month - and a special thank you to the following individuals and their colleagues, who have worked so hard to bring Amplifund to life.
Thank you; Rupert Abbott, Amir Ashour, John Beardsworth, Rachel Bowen, Ryan Delaney, Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, James Frost, Mohamed Kahwaji, Vicki Maguire, Neish McLean, Luke Mortimer, Glenroy Murray, Francisco Ortigosa, Luke Pearson, Adrian Rossi, Elliot Vaughn, MX Williams, Karen Blackett, Robert MacGinn, Jimmy Leach, The company at WPP, Grey London, MediaCom, TCS, GiveOut, ClearChannel, Verizon Media, HuffPost, and everyone at GAY TIMES.
Tag Warner
CEO