Q26 Origins: How We Built A Creative Community | Jazzed About Stuff

I saw a post on Tumblr four years ago as I scrolled down my dashboard feed. Decorative text in textured appearance sat before a bright white background. “ The 26 LGBTQ terms you should know.” I clicked on the post and followed the blog.

The Tumblr was run by a friend from college who spent her free time educating curious individuals about the queer terms and labels they didn’t understand. Each post took a letter from the alphabet and defined a queer term beginning with that letter. It was a fun project between a small group of friends that eventually evolved into something more.

“We’re turning this into a blog,” Camille said after running through the alphabet a few times. “We want to expand these Tumblr posts into longer lifestyle blog posts.”

At that time, I had worked on a fully digital monthly magazine, Miss Millennia, a traditional magazine, Bakersfield Life, and experimental magazines of all kinds in college and grad school. “Okay,” I said, not quite sure of what I was getting myself into. I didn’t know that I would be still talking about The Queer 26 four years later.