8 million readers: even with a funding shortfall due to the political climate, the only LGBTQ+ newsroom in Kentucky saw growth and national attention.

Queer Kentucky, the Commonwealth’s only LGBTQ+-dedicated newsroom, which reached 8 million readers, recently released its annual report for 2025, highlighting the news outlet’s work despite a sharp decline in funding.

“It tells the real story about what’s been going on with Queer Kentucky this past year, good and bad, including the fact that we’ve got challenges and that we need support. But in the midst of all that, we’re doing great work,” John Reisert, president of the board of directors of Queer Kentucky said.

The organization published 262 stories — about a 30% increase from the previous year — and reached 8 million readers — a more than 400% increase from 2025, according to the report.

“Eight million people heard the stories of LGBTQ+ Kentuckians last year, and I think that matters more than people realize. We’re not just filling a coverage gap. We’re actively rewriting the national narrative on what Kentucky looks like,” Missy Spears, Queer Kentucky’s executive director, said.

Queer Kentucky and its team received several national recognitions. Founder and former executive director Spencer Jenkins and Queer Kentucky were nominated for Best Print Magazine Article at the GLAAD Media Awards for the 2024 article “Noah J. Ricketts Brings the Bluegrass to Hollywood and Broadway” in the Reimagining Masculinity Queer Kentucky print publication. Queer Kentucky was also nominated by GLAAD in 2026 for Outstanding Independent Journalism.

Missy Spears was named one of GO! Magazine’s 2025 Top 100 Queer Women and served as a Grand Marshal of the Cincinnati Pride parade. She also received the Jeanne Córdova Award from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, one of the highest honors in queer media.

The report also noted that Queer Kentucky’s coverage has grown beyond Kentucky’s urban centers, now including Northern Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, and Appalachian communities.

In 2025, the newsroom shifted its focus to civic literacy, providing more news out of Frankfort. Queer Kentucky also hosted in-person events that brought journalists and the community together.

The team delivered research-driven stories, highlighting the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ Kentuckians as health policies shift with the current administration. The organization also emphasized harm reduction and public health, publishing more stories about resources across the state. The work goes beyond the words. The Queer Kentucky team also distributed more than 300 HIV self-test kits across Kentucky alongside continued coverage to raise awareness.

The report showed the continued partnership with researchers from Kentucky’s Moore Lab to create a public resource survey on LGBTQ+ health data in Kentucky, which began in 2024. That survey reached thousands of Kentuckians in 2025.

“A GLAAD nomination and the Jeanne Cordova Award in the same year is national recognition for queer Kentucky voices, and it means something. But we also had 4,100 LGBTQ+ Kentuckians answer our call to collect data that nobody else was collecting,” Spears said. “That’s the work. The awards and nominations are really fun, but the data is how we prove our community’s needs are real and form the blueprint for our journalism coverage.”

The report also details how funding has decreased across the board for nonprofits in the US, including Queer Kentucky. The report shows the organization lost almost 42% of its total funding.

Even with the financial situation, Reisert said the news outlet still fulfilled its mission.

“We took a huge cut to our budget, and that should have impacted what we’re able to do. Yet, we seemingly did even more than the previous year in terms of coverage. We’re still making an impact,” he said.

The current administration’s federal grant-funding changes last year impacted the organization, Reisert said.

“Money that was earmarked or available to organizations like ours in the past isn’t now. It was also an eye-opener for us… that we should look at how we fund our work and find different ways to do it,” Reisert said.

Now, the organization is looking ahead and expanding its storytelling footprint in areas like Western Kentucky, starting in Paducah.

“Paducah is gay. I will scream that from the hilltops,” Spears said. “Paducah boasts one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly downtowns, a fairness ordinance going back a decade, and hosts the only lesbian film festival in the country.”

The expansion isn’t a new idea, she noted. It’s the result of groundwork laid well before this year’s report, Spears said. “We’ve been forming relationships in the community since 2023 and are excited to strengthen and expand our network over the next few years. Louisville and Lexington aren’t going anywhere, [and] our job has always been to highlight the Kentuckians that get left out of the conversation.”

For Reisert, that mission carries a particular urgency.

“We live in a red state, and Kentucky is doing as much or more than any other red state in the country when it comes to initiatives targeting queer and trans folks,” he said. “If you don’t report on it, it’s just going to happen with no light shining upon it, and there will be no way to resist it.”