Staff Voices – Why Now?

Welcome to the first edition of Leslie. You are probably asking the same question we ask ourselves: “Why are you starting an LGBTQ+ media company in 2023?”

Community newspapers around the country are being bought out and closed by larger national media conglomerates. So why Leslie? Why now?

Our community is at a crossroads; we’re being threatened from every side. Many of our threats are from the obvious perpetrators: the Trump MAGA movement, Texas’ governor, lieutenant governor, state senate, and many of our state legislators.

At the same time, from within our own tent, our transgender community is being pitted against, in most part, gay men. So many of our siblings are losing their lives to fentanyl and meth addictions. Our Israeli and Palestinian siblings within our queer communities are being pitted against each other by the extreme left, while practicing LGBTQ+ Christians, Jews, and Muslims are told they do not have the right to worship by the extreme right. Our LGBTQ+ art forms, like drag performances, are under attack, along with our books, our movies, and our leather and kink communities are all under attack.

Queer adoptions and families with trans kids are at risk of being torn apart. Families are being discriminated against by our local family services, and within families around the state, LGBTQ+ youth are being kicked out of their homes for simply identifying as trans or expressing a same-sex attraction.

If that was not enough, our bars and our places of worship are being threatened by mass shooters, Nazis, decrying Jews and Gays, while so-called right-wing Christians hold signs calling for our community’s damnation.

We here at Leslie can no longer stand by and be complacent. We are the new voice, the so-called silent majority who can be silent no longer. We are here, we are loved, and we will be the voice of our community here in Austin and in Central Texas.

We will call out injustice wherever we see it. Our pledge to you is that we will shine light into the darkness while giving everyone a voice in our community. Let me be clear: this is a mission of love and not a mission of profit. All the proceeds from our advertisers and the publication of this newspaper and media company will go towards making sure that our homeless LGBTQ+ youth in Austin and Central Texas have a warm bed, food, and access to healthcare that includes the right to transition.

Nearly seven in ten (68%) respondents in a study about LGBTQ+ youth homelessness indicated that family rejection was a major factor, making it the most cited factor leading to homelessness. More than half (54%) of respondents indicated that abuse in their family was another important factor contributing to LGBTQ+ homelessness. Additionally, more than 75% of responding agencies have worked with transgender youth in the past year.

Our pledge to our community is that we will use your advertising dollars to house, clothe, and feed our homeless queer youth. We will honor Leslie Cochran, a beloved, cross-dressing, homeless Austinite who was unashamedly queer in identity, politics, and purpose.

To honor him is to honor you, our readership, and we hope that you will enjoy this first edition and keep coming back to it as future editions hit the streets.

So, do us a favor — if you have a comment, a story to tell, or a need to promote your local business, contact us, and let’s use this new media to keep Austin queer and weird. At the same time, we’ll help keep our queer youth safe and healthy.

Welcome to Leslie, our weird city’s queer voice.