The GayCities team--David, Matt, Oscar, Scott, Chris and Dan--in their SF office.
Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you about one of my favorite national queer blogs, Queerty, shutting down admist other LGBT media struggles? Well, that’s ok if you didn’t. I don’t expect you to be as interested in inner media workings as this guy but you’ll probably be more excited to here that Queerty is back!
Once owned by Jossip creator David Hauslib, Queerty was shut down several weeks ago after a disagreement in strategy with the site’s contracted operators, who decided to change their business focus. So when Hauslib appraoched GayCities to operate the site they were excited to take on the challenge saying,
…one [queer blog] consistently stands out, sparking the most water-cooler (if we could afford one) conversation: the one and only Queerty. Whether the topic is an originally reported article about a gay teen hoping to attend the prom, a critique of a pompous leader or organization or a laugh out-loud-post about the latest gay Internet sensation, Queerty’s talented stable of writers and editors managed to be lacerating, serious and hilarious, often within the same post…
…So when Queerty owner David Hauslaib offered GayCities the opportunity to acquire the blog he founded six years ago, we were hooked. After fixing some technical glitches, we are relaunching today. We’re bringing back key Queerty writers including Daniel Villareal, who will post daily from Dallas, while adding a bunch of our own stars such as Matt Baume, Dan Tracer, Oscar Raymundo, Dan Renzi, Scott Wallis, Jeff Katz and GayCities New York City editor Jeffrey James Keyes.
Queerty has always been a boundary pusher, and not one of teh same cookie-cutter mainstream gay publications that stick so closely to a popular, occasionally straight-laced LGBT agenda. And the new editors allude to the fact that they want to keep this edge while increasing journalistic integrity.
I applaud this effort, but I wonder if they’ll really be able to maintain such a balance. As Erin Rook over at JO points out, all the editorial staff mentioned and pictured are men, and one of the first comments on the introductory post says, “‘I myself am a veteran of two decades in gay media, starting as The Advocate with stops at PlanetOut.’ Not exactly the best recomendation for somebody claiming to want to run an independent relevent gay stories blog.”
I can’t say I disagree, although most of us (myself included) have some level of media background. Indeed, that level of inside knowledge does make for better “reporting” or commentary, but it can also influence how and what you speak about. Queerty was geared more towards gay men, as most “all-encompassing” LGBT pubs are, but they were pretty good about acknowledging lesbians and digging into all kinds of trans* stories as well. So I’m interested to see if they keep that up.
Judging by their first video, which is not embeddable and features only men (except for one female fag hag whose sexuality I do not claim to know but was definitely accompanied by a hot man), I’m not terribly hopeful. Plus they make fun of the site’s previous foibles that include typos, which seems petty, especially because I’m sure they can afford layers of editors that most struggling queer media cannot afford.
But here at qPDX we aim to be as deviant and inclusive as possible, which unfortunately also means we’re pretty much as poor as possible. It also means we have plenty of typos. So if that annoys you, please do think about contributing.
