Please Help Me Win $10K to Grow Queerency! (The Balance Sheet: May 14, 2023)

Good news: I'm a finalist in the Top Creator category for the 2023 Next Challenge for Media and Journalism, a national competition seeking groundbreaking startups that will reinvent media in the coming decade.

Voting is now open for the Audience Choice Award, and the winner will receive $10,000 to grow their business. If I win, I will use the money to grow the Queerency newsroom to hire more journalists and creators so that we can increase our coverage of the queer economy and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship.

If you have ever received any valuable information, inspiration, or education from any of my work, I would appreciate your vote!

VOTE HERE

It's no secret that vodka sodas have become somewhat of a stereotype in the gay community when it comes to bellying up to the bar. For years, brands like Tito's and Absolut have dominated the market for prides, but one gay founder is shaking up the spirit world with a new big gay product.

Gay Water, founded by Spencer Hoddeson, is a canned vodka soda and lifestyle brand curated by and for the queer community.

“I was on a trip with a girlfriend who was talking about a job that she had just gotten in the beverage industry, and we were having drinks,” he said. “I ordered a vodka soda and turned to her and asked, ‘Did you know that within the queer community, typically an older generation of gay men, vodka soda is referred to as gay water?”

Hoddeson, who had already been toying with the idea of creating his own beverage product, said he followed the gay water idea down the rabbit hole to see where it would lead him.

Continue reading at Queerency

ABC News has promoted gay correspondent Gio Benitez by naming him one of the network’s flagship weekend programs’ co-anchors.

Benitez, 37, will join Good Morning America as a permanent co-anchor on Saturdays and Sundays, ABC News President Kim Godwin announced in a statement to the network’s news division.

He joins current co-anchors Whit Johnson and Janai Norman.

Continue reading at The Advocate

Growing up as a queer Asian American meant living multiple lives. To my grandparents back in China, I was studious, fluent in Mandarin, piano prodigy by night, and respectful member of society by day. To my white friends, I loved Pacsun, The Killers, and hid my love of stinky tofu and preserved duck eggs. But the most impactful life I lived was with my parents, who I somehow managed to convince that I had a crush on the Lisa I took to prom (who I’m actually great friends with now); and that, of course, I was going to become a doctor.

When I reflect on the intersectionality of my queer and Asian-American identities, I think back on how ferociously these two identities clashed, but ultimately how it’s provided me an incredible point of view, lessons in resilience, and continues to highlight a need for queer Asian representation in media and positions of influence.

Continue reading at Queerency

A lesbian bar owner is speaking out on the business impact of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas. In an Instagram post, Julie Mabry, owner of Houston's Pearl Bar, recounted a recent experience where an unnamed insurance underwriter declined to insure her establishment because they host drag shows.

"Insurance companies have to take in the 'risk' of a business, and apparently, a lesbian bar is so much of a risk that the insurance companies are trying to deny us," Mabry said in the post.

Pearl Bar is a popular lesbian bar in Houston that hosts drag shows, drag bingo, and more. Mabry said that the venue paid more than $300k in sales and Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission taxes alone, making it a significant revenue generator for the state. However, despite being a 21+ club, the bar is still facing discrimination from insurance companies.

Continue reading at Queerency

The LGBTQIA+ National Grant allows eligible small businesses to receive one of 25 grants totaling $25,000. Founders First is committed to increasing the number of diverse founder-led companies generating over $1 million in revenue and creating premium-wage jobs. To be eligible, the company's founder must identify as LGBTQIA+, have an active U.S.-based business, be the CEO, President, or owner, and employ between 2 and 50 employees.

Learn more and apply here

GLAAD’s Black Queer Creative Summit is the first-of-its-kind in-person event, specifically geared towards educating, empowering, and training emerging Black LGBTQ+ creatives across five sectors of the entertainment industry:

1. EXECUTIVES
2. CREATORS
3. BEHIND THE SCENES
4. ON SCREEN TALENT
5. MUSIC SUPERVISION

Learn more and apply here