Siobhan O'Leary

I think instead of reflexively dogpiling @moorehn we can have a deeper discussion about which workers get to contribute to AS and what else those workers have to do to make ends meet.

I love AS. I'm trans and queer myself. I'm also a functionally retired journalist who has been squeezed out of the industry by grossly exploitative rates. I couldn't subsidize AS with an article even if I wanted to.

It's just a basic material reality of capitalism. These are broke businesses with broke customers selling the work of broke writers and they squeak out a profit margin by buying work with peanut shavings. It's not homophobia to point out that bitches gotta eat.

Anyway, there's another great queer feminist outfit that pays better that's in the red, so maybe the folks dogpiling Heidi want to get a Bitch Media subscription to keep them running?

You got cities where the liveable wage is $19/hour and every mom and pop on the block paying less than that is in the same boat. Yes, AS provides a service with moral value. Yes, its editors want to pay more. But bills aren't paid in wants.

Y'all act like there's never been a nonprofit employer doing morally valuable work that nonetheless forces its workers to work for a starvation wage.