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Our latest Public Newsroom offered ways local media can tell better stories about queer Chicago.
By Justin Agrelo
Aside from Pride month, queer stories rarely take precedent in Chicago’s local news coverage. When queer stories are told, they typically center white, cisgender, affluent gay men on the North Side, failing to capture the diversity of the city’s many queer communities. So what would a local media landscape that serves queer people year-round look like?
Last week, City Bureau brought together journalist Adam Rhodes and interdisciplinary artist Ireashia Bennett to explore how local media can tell better queer stories. The panelists and attendees discussed present-day shortcomings in the local coverage of Chicago’s queer communities as well as practical ways newsrooms can better serve queer Chicagoans.
Here’s what we learned:
Move beyond the national story
Chicago media has a tendency to cover queer issues that are also playing out at the national level. Consider the amount of coverage the fight for marriage equality received from national and local outlets. This tendency to focus on national stories leaves many queer Chicago stories untold and information needs unmet.
Rhodes believes this tendency also leads to superficial coverage of Chicago’s queer communities.
“Reporting that serves queer Chicago well is nuanced and more revelatory than a localized national story,” Rhodes says.
Both Bennett and Rhodes suggest reporters allow queer people the agency to decide what issues are important to them and what stories get told about their communities. This move starts by simply listening to queer folks so that local coverage can move beyond what’s playing out on the national stage.
The need to de-center Northalsted
To better serve queer Chicago, local media outlets need to break out of the habit of centering the Northalsted community—a community that is largely white and affluent. Treating the Northalsted community as a stand-in for all queer Chicagoans has created an overrepresentation of white, cisgender, gay men’s perspectives in media about queer Chicago. This further marginalizes queer folks of color who are consistently underrepresented in news media and who have different information needs.
The consistent centering of Northalsted also creates barriers for queer folks on the South and West sides to access information that is relevant to their lives and their interests. To tell better stories about queer Chicago, reporters need to engage communities outside of Northalsted, and be intentional about centering a diverse set of experiences and perspectives. Queer folks are not a monolith, and their stories should not be either.
Queer people are telling their own stories in their own ways
Whether on Instagram or through public art installation, Bennett highlights the many ways queer folks of color on the South and West sides are telling their own stories outside of traditional media. Bennett was recently inspired by the use of virtual reality by artists to reimagine history and time in relation to queerness, Blackness, and disability. Bennett says they aspire to that level of storytelling and wants to move beyond traditional mediums to tell queer stories.
“How can queer folks be at the forefront of shaping our own narratives?” Bennett asks. “How are we already documenting and archiving our personal histories?”
In many ways, queer people using alternative mediums to tell queer stories is a direct result of traditional newsrooms failing to cover queer Chicagoans in a way that’s meaningful and nuanced. Rhodes says many queer folks who have been left out of editorial decision-making are now creating spaces where their perspectives and experiences can be shared in a media landscape that consistently fails to meet our needs.
“If these traditional outlets are going to continue to either not report on issues that matter to us or poorly report them,” Rhodes says, “then we’re going to tell our stories on our own.”
Want to learn more?
Check out some of the take-aways for this month’s workshop.
Adam’s recs
‘We're not asking for any more than what we are already deserved,’ a piece on racism in Boystown by Adam
When Crime Goes Viral, a piece on a homophobic IL law criminalizing HIV transmission, by Adam
The Journalism Salute. Adam is interviewed on the episode of the podcast
What does it really mean to be non-binary? By Tre’vell Anderson
Ireashia’s picks
Every Image is an Offering by Texas Isaiah
Frankly. Podcast, hosted by Ireashia
Black Futures (book)
More
TransIt Productions, a trans-led production company
OTV, is a non-profit platform for intersectional series, pilots and video art, supporting chicago artists in producing and exhibiting indie media, film and tv
Molasses, a Black trans-led artist collective
Black Drag Council, a Black, LGBTQ+ led organization that intends to connect and support not only drag performers, but all parts of the community
An Interrogation, short audio piece on race, queerness and desire by Erisa Apantaku
Somebody I Love is Nonbinary, an 101-level workshop on how to support nonbinary people around you.
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