Special projects at Queer Kentucky. Alongside our daily reporting as Kentucky’s LGBTQ+ newsroom, we run ongoing community projects, like Queer Kentucky Votes, our statewide health survey and free harm reduction lockers. Below those is our archive: the print magazine we published from 2022 to 2025, our digital special issues, zines, guides and storytelling series. Those projects are finished, but every story is still free to read.
Ongoing
Projects we are running right now
Elections · 2026
Queer Kentucky Votes
Our nonpartisan home base for LGBTQ+ voters, with registration and absentee deadlines, what is on your ballot and where to vote ahead of Election Day on November 3, 2026. It includes the free 2026 Queer Election Guide, designed by Chunk of China and made possible by the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation.
Research · Since 2024
The Queer Kentucky Survey
Most health data about Kentucky never asks about sexual orientation or gender identity, so we are collecting it ourselves. The survey team: Drs. Justin X. Moore and Sydney P. Howard of the Moore Lab, with collaborating researchers Drs. Keith J. Watts and Rachel H. Farr, and Queer Kentucky staff. This IRB-approved survey has heard from more than 4,000 Kentuckians since 2024. Explore the live dashboard, the published research and the stories our reporters built from the data.
Health · Since 2025
Harm Reduction Lockers
When queer Kentuckians told us at our community conversations on substance use that they needed safer access to supplies, we did something about it. With the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, we placed free lockers at 12 locations across Kentucky, stocked with naloxone, fentanyl and xylazine test strips and other supplies.
In the news: Spectrum News 1 · WCPO 9 · LINK nky · NKyTribune
Reporting · 2026
2026 CNP Media Fund
With support from the Counter Narrative Project’s 2026 CNP Media Fund, we are reporting on HIV and harm reduction in Black and Brown communities across Kentucky. The series follows the people keeping their neighbors alive, from Black-led markets that stock Narcan beside the produce to organizers filling the gaps left by federal funding cuts. New stories are added as they publish.
Coverage · Ongoing
Our Regions
Our growth is intentional. We are taking the time to carve out real coverage of Louisville, Eastern, Western, Northern and Central Kentucky and Appalachia, and each region has its own home for our latest stories. Our coverage is not limited to these places, but this is where we are working on purpose to grow first, and we will keep expanding from there.
Annual event · Since 2024
Bourbon & Belonging: Kentucky’s Queer Bourbon Week
Every October since 2024, Bourbon & Belonging has brought LGBTQ+ Kentuckians into the state’s biggest industry, with tastings and tours, dinners, drag brunches, dance parties and sober-friendly experiences in cities across Kentucky. It is our way of showing that bourbon, like Kentucky, is queer, inclusive and for all of us.
Digital magazine · 2026
Queer Cincinnati: Beyond the Binary
Building on the success of our Louisville project, Death Before Detransition, Queer Kentucky was awarded a City of Cincinnati grant to create a magazine made entirely by and for Cincinnati’s trans and nonbinary youth. Co-edited by Nyla Davies and Avery Plummer, it is full of joy, community, bold art and some hard truths, from sober queer spaces to new campus policies.
Print magazine · 2026
nymph(o) Magazine
nymph(o) is an independent, sex-positive LGBTQ+ print magazine with a 1980s indie-zine spirit. Queer Kentucky partnered with founder and editor-in-chief Avery Plummer to help release Issue 4, Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free, inspired by Fannie Lou Hamer. The cover is painted by Kentucky artist Cierra Evans, and copies are pay what you can.
Impact · 2025
2025 Impact Report
A look at what Queer Kentucky accomplished in 2025, when we reported 30% more stories on 42% less funding. See the stories we told, the communities we served and the work your support made possible.
From the archive
Retired projects, still free to read
Print magazine, 2022 to 2025
Issue 08 · Spring 2025
The Show Must Go On
Issue 07 · 2024
25 Faces of Fairness
Issue 06 · 2024
Queering the Bourbon Industry
Issue 05 · Spring 2024
Reimagining Masculinity
Issue 04 · Winter 2023
Discovering Home
Issue 03 · Fall 2023
Celebrating Drag, Burlesque and Pride
Issue 02 · Spring 2023
Finding Connection, Health and Community
Issue 01 · Fall 2022
Exploring Queer Mental Health
Digital special issues
Digital issue · 2025
The Northern Kentucky Issue
Digital issue · 2025
Death Before Detransition
Digital issue · 2025
Taking the Substance
Digital issue · 2025
The Mpox Issue
Series, zines and guides
Storytelling series · 2021, 2024 to 2025
PRISM
PRISM was our storytelling series centering Black, Brown and Indigenous LGBTQ+ voices in Kentucky. Curated by Austen Smith, it published essays, poetry and personal reflection from writers across the state. Every piece is still free to read.
Zine · 2025
Queer Mutual Aid Zine
We didn’t ask, we just did it. This free zine profiles the LGBTQ+ organizers behind Backwoods Literary Press, Potluck for the People, Moveable Feast Lexington, Redden Gardens, Eastern Kentucky Mutual Aid and the Covington Cryptid Block Party. Illustrated by Amanda Wood and made possible by ArtsWave.
Election guide · 2024
Queer Election Guide 2024
Our 2024 toolkit pointed LGBTQ+ voters past the presidential race to the local and state offices that shape daily life. It was designed by Northern Kentucky graphic designer Kara Henry and written by civics journalist Olivia Krauth. It is still free to download.
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