Review

The online publication Queer has existed since May 17, 2021, and brings together members of the queer community with activist spirits and allies alike. Our work focuses on advocating for the rights of one of the most oppressed groups in Georgia- queer community. We also stand in solidarity with any social group, whose rights are being violated.

Queer is a media, whose doors are always open for any member of the LGBTQI community, organization or initiative group, and all the allies. We wish to convey the diversity of the queer community and create a platform for constructive dialog. During the year, we prepared more than 1,500 articles, including about 50 extensive materials in the “Queer Says” category, where respondents share their experiences, achievements, and problems. In addition, we have been preparing educational materials that we hope will, on the one hand, empower community members and, on the other hand, help the LGBTQI movement in the advocacy process by making queer voices heard.

Our year ended with good news — Queer is the winner of the WECF Georgia (Women Engage for a Common Future — Georgia) Competition for Media Equality 2022. We won first prize in the category of digital platform focused on women and gender issues. In addition, editor of Queer, Khatia Ghoghoberidze, was elected as the chairperson of The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics. At the fourteenth general meeting, Khatia Ghoghoberidze replaced Tamar Rukhadze in the mentioned position and will head The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethicsl for a period of one year.

2022 marked various news and achievements for Queer. We are happy to say that according to Google Analytics, we had 74,000 unique readers during the year. This is an 88% increase compared to last year. Additionally, we had 115,000 new users this year, a 191% increase over the previous year.

Our social media was also active during the year. On Facebook, our posts reached nearly a million people—specifically, Facebook Reach was 966,000, a 137% increase over the previous year. Also, our page gained more than 2 500 new likes.

On Instagram, our photos and videos reached nearly 59,000 people, a 181% increase over the previous year. In addition, we have gained over 1,250 new subscribers. 

We also activated our TikTok channel this year, where we tell you interesting and fun stories through short videos. Currently, our channel has more than 1,000 subscribers and 6,500 likes. We plan to provide you with more interesting videos in 2023. 

You can also see Queer news on Twitter and Linkedin. 

All of this would be impossible without the support of four donors: European Endowment for Democracy, Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia, International Media Support, Women’s fund in Georgia. We would like to, once again, thank them for this. 

At the end of the year, we started cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It is with their and Sweden’s support that the Queer Card newsletter is prepared, which summarizes not only our activities but also the activities of LGBTQI organizations operating in Georgia every month.

Throughout the whole year, we have been covering news that is relevant to the queer community both in Georgia and abroad. We paid special attention to EuroPride, which this year was held in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Also, our journalists attended the annual queer film festival, Queer Voices, in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

This year, Queer continued its cooperation with On.ge, which involves their distribution of articles published by us.The good news is that we have started new collaborations with regional media, including Radio Marneuli, Southern Gate and mak.ge. The main goal of these collaborations is to spread queer voices even further, so that more people can read about our achievements, challenges we face and to make them see that we are a part of the same society. We must all build a free, just and equal state together.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone – respondents for their trust, as well as readers, supporters, fans, critics. We promise that Queer has been and will always be a medium that allows any member of the community to have their voice heard.

Happy New Year and we wish you a free, happy, fun and most importantly, equal 2023.