Arts & Entertainment
LGBTQ publication Gay Star News closes
Founders say the issue ‘has been entirely financial’
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U.K.-based LGBTQ publication Gay Star News is closing immediately after running for eight years.
Gay Star News founders Tris Reid-Smith and Scott Nunn announced the news on the website saying that the publication is “now more widely read, watched and loved by the international LGBTI audience than ever” but “our problem has been entirely financial.”
BBC News LGBTQ correspondent Ben Hunte reported that Gay Star News entered insolvency and will cease trading on July 30. The Gay Star News staff of 20 people was only given 48 hours notice that the publication would be shuttering.
BREAKING: LGBT media group Gay Star News (@gaystarnews) will cease trading tomorrow.
ā Ben Hunte (@BenInLDN) July 29, 2019
It is entering insolvency resulting in ~20 job losses. Staff were reportedly told 48hrs before pay day via meetings.
Nunn and Reid-Smith blamed their financial woes on companies that they say “rainbow wash” during Pride month instead of supporting LGBTQ interests year-round.
“There has also been another trend which has become more apparent this year. Brands which are wishing to ādoā LGBTI work are increasingly doing so in a tokenistic way,” they write. “Rather than working with us to engage and serve LGBTI people year-round, many have chosen to ārainbow washā. They have turned their logo rainbow-colored for Pride week or month and ā at best ā made a small donation to an LGBTI good cause. Worst still, we have learned that some brands have done this while at the same time funding anti-LGBTI politicians to the tune of millions of dollars. Tokenism has reached a new low.”
The goodbye note concluded, “Until the very end we had good reason to believe we would survive. We have fought through and won through so many times. We were incredibly close. But this one has broken us, and truly broken our hearts.”
Gay Star News launched in 2011. It’s coverage included business, health, international news, politics, pop culture and more.
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The 2024 New York City Pride Parade wound through the streets of Manhattan and past the historic Stonewall Inn on Sunday, June 30.
(Washington Blade photos by Daniel Truitt)
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The fourth annual Fredericksburg Pride march and festival was held at Riverfront Park in Fredericksburg, Va. on Saturday, June 29. The event began with a march around downtown Fredericksburg beginning and ending in the park.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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Covering Fredericksburg Pride for @WashBlade . City Council member @WillMackintosh speaking: pic.twitter.com/tDdVD2IVsM
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) June 29, 2024
Photos
PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride
Senior living and healthcare organization holds fourth annual march at Falls Church campus
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The senior living and healthcare organization Goodwin Living held its fourth annual community Pride march around its Bailey’s Crossroads campus in Falls Church, Va. with residents, friends and supporters on Tuesday, June 25. Following the march, a drag brunch was held with performances by drag artists of SADBrunch: Crimsyn, Sapphire Dupree and Evon Dior Michelle.
(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)
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