LOOKOUT announces news diversity initiative to elevate local queer voices
The news organization is calling on all news outlets to help build out its diversity database, in order to build trust in the community and among readers.
Board member Meg Taylor (right) signs people up for LOOKOUT’s newsletter at this past year’s Rainbows Festival in Phoenix. (Photo by Moses Martínez)
As Phoenix’s only nonprofit LGBTQ+ news site, LOOKOUT’s mission is to not simply cover queer news, but also elevate queer voices. We make sure the city’s queer community is being recognized in all aspects of news, from medical stories on child birth to housing insecurity among queer adults.
During our bi-monthly listening sessions that we’ve held, one of the most common complaints we’ve heard from our readers is that they don’t see enough queer people in news coverage that isn’t solely focused on LGBTQ+ issues (i.e. we’re only used to show queer trauma, or Pride-related events.)
That’s why LOOKOUT is following in the footsteps of a handful of other nonprofit news outlets to create a diversity database of local LGBTQ+ people, experts, and allies. We are planning a launch of the database later in the year, but we need to have a solid enough number of nominees in our database.
That’s where we need your help.
We invite all of Phoenix’s news outlets and reporters within their ranks to participate in helping build this database, as we see this as a communal benefit to not only our community, but an opportunity for these outlets to build trust in news.
If you have expertise in any field, you’re invited to fill out our Google form below.
The grant comes with entrance into an incubator program led by American Journalism Project that will help fulfill our mission as Arizona’s only LGBTQ+ investigative news outlet
