“The revolution may not be televised, but it will be live-streamed.” As technology decentralises information control and right-wing movements clamp down on LGBTQ+ visibility and rights, volunteer pioneers are turning journalism into a citizen duty. With distrust in traditional media only growing, what does it mean for queer European to take journalism into their own hands?
Illustration by GAY45.Subscribe to our newsletter here.
In recent years, a new model of journalism has emerged at the intersection of queer identity and civic duty: the rise of queer citizen and volunteer journalism across continental Europe and the UK. Far from being a fringe activity, these efforts draw strength from lived experience, community solidarity, and journalistic integrity, filling the gaps left by mainstream media, which too often lacks nuance or fails altogether to centre queer voices.
Historic Roots, Digital Present
Europe’s queer press is not new. Its roots stretch back to the underground zines of the 1970s and early 80s, shaped by radical punk publishing and anti-authoritarian resistance. But in the twenty-first century, the shape of independent journalism is evolving. In March 2005, the French platform AgoraVox launched one of Europe’s first large-scale citizen-journalism projects. Now, groups like Bellingcat and The European Correspondent began combining traditional reporting techniques with digital investigation and citizen contributions.
Among the new generation of queer outlets is GAY45.eu, which was revived in 2023 in Vienna and London, 30 years since the title was used for the first time. Staffed entirely by volunteers, the platform publishes investigative journalism, commissions visual and audio storytelling, and hosts Queer Journalism, a podcast exploring queer perspectives on current affairs. It also runs the European Queer Journalism Campus, a mentoring scheme for emerging queer writers and reporters from across the continent. Our mission is clear: to invest not in clicks, but in the next generation of journalists.
What Is New Volunteer Journalism?
Volunteer Journalism (VJ) refers to journalism produced by organised community groups of non-professionals. It is distinct from both traditional news media and the more atomised, individualistic form of citizen journalism. VJ involves individuals—often unpaid—contributing their time and skills to independent media collectives, non-profits, or community platforms. These efforts are usually mission-driven and rooted in solidarity, offering functional, emotional, and symbolic value, while resisting the commercial constraints of mainstream outlets and amplify marginalised voices.
At GAY45.eu and among our peers across Europe, we dare to call what we do New Volunteer Journalism (NVJ). It is not simply a return to the grassroots, but a conscious fusion of literary sensibility and investigative purpose. NVJ draws on the narrative innovations of Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel and the lush, immersive reportage of Gabriel García Márquez, blending them with the digital fluency, collaborative structure, and ethical urgency of contemporary independent journalism. It is journalism with a pulse and a homegrown aesthetic—neither amateur nor institutional, but something entirely new.
You can simply scroll past—but please don't overlook the importance of an independent queer press.
Time is now or never.
Queer voices disappear without independent journalism to amplify them.
We document what others won't touch.
We hold power to account when it threatens our communities.
This work exists only because you choose to fund it directly.
Donate over €25/month and receive our limited-edition tote bag — a badge of resistance, a statement that you stand for fearless journalism.
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Can't donate? Sharing our work helps more than you think
You can simply scroll past — but please don’t overlook the importance of an independent queer press.
You can simply scroll past—but please don't overlook the importance of an independent queer press.
Time is now or never.
Queer voices disappear without independent journalism to amplify them.
We document what others won't touch.
We hold power to account when it threatens our communities.
This work exists only because you choose to fund it directly.
Donate over €25/month and receive our limited-edition tote bag — a badge of resistance, a statement that you stand for fearless journalism.
We are grateful!
Can't donate? Sharing our work helps more than you think
Networks of Solidarity
Germany’s Queer Media Society is a voluntary network of LGBTQ+ media professionals which campaigns for broader and more accurate queer representation in German-language journalism. Its peer-based approach echoes the ethos of radiOrakel, a feminist and queer-inclusive radio station in Oslo founded in 1982. It is still running today, with roughly 100 volunteer contributors.
In the UK, several initiatives have emerged in the wake of rising anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in national tabloids and broadcast media. The LGBTQ+ Journalism Network, founded by Sophie Perry in 2022, provides networking opportunities, events, and mentorship for queer journalists at all stages of their careers. Meanwhile, QueerAF, a community interest company since 2021, publishes a weekly newsletter, commissions writers through community funding, and runs mentoring initiatives like the “Queer Gaze,” in partnership with Wales-based Inclusive Journalism Cymru.
Defying Invisibility
In parts of Eastern Europe, queer volunteer journalism can be a matter of life and death. In Poland, grassroots groups like Miłość Nie Wyklucza (Love Doesn’t Exclude) document violence at Pride marches and counter the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ narratives. In Hungary, volunteers affiliated with spaces like Auróra, a Budapest-based community centre, have created informal newsrooms to archive anti-queer legislation and public response. Their documentation has been cited by international human rights groups.
In the UK, EachOther, a human rights charity, trains volunteers, predominantly queer or trans, to produce video and written journalism by co-creating stories with impacted individuals. Their method prioritises collaboration over extraction: reporting with, not about.
The Campus Model: Building from Within
An emerging strand of queer volunteer journalism is the campus or fellowship model, grounded in training and co-production. Our European Queer Journalism Campus aims to be held annually in rotating EU cities, offering full scholarships for participants aged 18 to 28.
Likewise, QueerAF’s collaboration with Inclusive Journalism Cymru supports Welsh-based LGBTQ+ talent with paid commissions and one-to-one editorial mentorship. These campus-like models recognise that volunteerism must also be a space of learning, growth, and care.
Challenges in the Shadows
Precarity is a constant companion to volunteer journalism. Contributors face economic hardship, burnout, and targeted harassment. In Italy, Romania, and Hungary, reporters filming at Pride or covering anti-LGBTQ+ protests have been doxxed, assaulted, or threatened with legal action. Volunteer editors and podcast hosts often juggle multiple jobs to keep their platforms running.
Still, they persist. “There’s no such thing as objectivity when your subject is sleeping on your sofa,” a volunteer journalist in Marseille said. “But there is truth.”
What Lies Ahead
As commercial media conglomerates consolidate power and algorithmic platforms reduce visibility for independent outlets, queer volunteer journalism offers a decentralised and democratic alternative. These networks are beginning to formalise.
In 2022, ten LGBTQ+ publications – including Shangay (Spain), Humen (Hungary), and Winq (Netherlands) – joined forces to launch the ELMA (European LGBTQIA+ Media Association), a collaborative alliance aimed at resource-sharing and joint editorial initiatives. Unfortunately, in the last year, nobody has been able to contact them for comment – although their Instagram remains active. We have to assume they have dissolved, to some extent, as a group.
Organisations such as Are We Europe offer further proof that transnational, thematic journalism can thrive without legacy institutions or corporate backing.
Towards Sustainable Witnessing
Queer volunteer journalism offers a renaissance of embedded reporting, mutual aid, and radical imagination, embroiling neighbours, archivists, witnesses. They are unpaid not because their work is worthless, but because the systems that might fund them are still catching up.
In today’s phygital ecosystem in which everybody has, in their pockets, the means to document injustice, capture stories, and broadcast them to the world – and nestled inside a political topography increasingly hostile to queer existence – we all have an obligation. We need to be more than citizens, more than victims. We must all become journalists. Follow the examples of our brave brothers, sisters, and siblings in Palestine, in Ukraine, around the world who, out of violent necessity, have already answered this call. And answer with them.
To witness, to document, to insist on truth from the margins – this is not only journalism. It is duty. And it is, quite possibly, the future.
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