An editor once told me to stop pitching gay stories 👎 Today I’ve launched @WeAreQueerAF to change the media🏳️‍🌈 (and challenge its transphobia🏳️‍⚧️) No one should be told their lives aren’t worth telling a story about. Agree? Join the movement ⤵️

It is a really jarring moment to be a historian. To know what might be coming is alarming. To realize that no one around you sees it or acknowledges it is a weird place to be in. Its like time traveling without time traveling. 1/8

Algorithms filter queer content. Don't let them 👇 https://t.co/ZqyYovAX7v

11/ The TL;DR 🔴 The media fails us when it doesn't report Trump's lies as exactly that. This time around, we must refuse. 🔴 lessons from queer history that should guide us in this pivotal moment as we remind ourselves: we've won this fight before and we will again.

I brought all this queer militant agenda energy to this week's @WeAreQueerAF newsletter. 4900+ people use it to skip the doom scrolling but still understand the LGBTQIA+ news every Saturday. Join them 👇 https://t.co/vpThfW2WxD

And to use an old queer adage - it's time to get out of the bars and onto the streets...

The fightback has already begun, and there is nothing queers do better than organising, fighting back, and reminding everyone just how much love we have.

11/ So, if you're worried, I hear you. Those feelings are so valid. But here's what I want you to know:

10/ As for Marsha and Sylvia - their undying perseverance to show up, time and time again, in the face of prejudice even even within the community, means we still talk about them today as pioneering leaders of our modern rights movement.

Changing those decision-making processes is paramount - and it starts, sometimes, with a simple story about spending time with your boyfriend at the weekend.

9/ Harvey Milk would tell us to come out. To show our friends, colleagues and customers we're not the monsters the media say we are. Whether we like it or not, we pull so much of what we think and feel unconsciously from the media.

In an age of populism, the more airtime we give to figures like Trump and Nigel Farage, the more real they become. They don't deserve our time and attention; our communities do. Research shows time and again that even just reposting their lies spreads them further.

8/ Audre Lorde would tell us to lead with our truth. As a journalist, that also means not repeating their lies. Not giving a platform to their hate - even to conquer it. https://t.co/fd5wxtfL2g

7/ What can we learn from history? Queer history makers, from Harvey Milk to Audre Lorde, Marsha P. Johnson to Sylvia Rivera, have set out many successful tactics for our community to use against the rise of right-wing politics.

6/ Queer history-makers: They lived in a time when we were criminalised, persecuted and vilified. And what did they do? They fought back. We have won this fight before, and we will again. https://t.co/PqcYhx1sno

5/ But I've also seen another response. One which has the energy I'll be bringing to the next four years. One where we roll up our sleeves and say: what would our queer history makers do?

4/ How the LGBTQIA+ community is feeling This election is, no doubt, a shock to the system. It’s the source of fear in the queer community. In my close circle alone, I've seen people changing their citizenship, retreating from the horrifying news, feeling physically unwell

3/ The principles A core tenet of journalism is fact-checking. And a core principle of populism is lying. It's our job in the media to refuse to dance with lying partners - and instead, critique, analyse and hold to account all of their moves.

2/ What we should have done: We should have reported the simple truth: Trump lies. https://t.co/ykfMcCfgbA

The tango Trump tricked journalists into was based on our approach to reporting what happened. That meant that when Trump said he didn't say something, the media reported it - even when he did say it, and we had video evidence to prove it.

1/ Where the media failed us last time During the last Trump presidency, the media danced in circles around him. I refuse to play a part in that this time. Not when the lives of marginalised people all over the world, not least the LGBTQIA+ community, are at stake.