Paid subscriptions are the business model of liberation

It's no secret that queer people have trouble staying employed and staying in business.

A 2025 report from the Center for American Progress found the LGBTQIA+ people are 2.5 times more likely to be job searching than their non-LGBTQIA+ peers. That same report also shows queer people are 4 times more likely to be gig workers without a steady paycheck.

Queer businesses make less money too. CLEAR reported on a post-COVID pandemic federal survey on how businesses were rebounding and found that only 26% of the LGBTQIA+ small businesses were making more than $500k a year compared to 42% non-LGBTQIA+ small businesses.

Discrimination and anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation plays a massive role in all this and the farther we get into the Gay Liberation Movement, the more queer people are realizing they don't have to put up with subpar working conditions nor do they have to withhold their true identities at work. It's not just a nice to have. It's an end to trauma and danger. Many more of us are opting for self-employment where we can be free to make money on our terms.

This principle of self-liberation—not waiting for permission or societal improvements to accept your fullest self without shame—was explicitly named by Harry Hay in the statement of purpose for the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front, which sprung up after the Stonewall uprisings. Employment rights and equal opportunities in business played a role in Stonewall and the movement work that came before and after it, but the barriers queer people experience today are complicated by unstable economic conditions, insane cost of living spikes and the consolidation of wealth and power by monopoly corporations.

That's why you see so many GoFundMes and BuyMeACoffees on social media from queer, trans and other marginalized people trying to cover the cost of their housing, their groceries or their healthcare. People have to do what they can to make the math work while fighting for better employment and business access.

I hate this reality. Not because I don't support people raising money for rent, but because it creates a cloud of instability that hangs over every person's head who is forced to live paycheck to paycheck, client to client, GoFundMe to GoFundMe. It gives you less choice in who you work for when the money is that tight and it gives you no creative mental space to do the work you were meant to do. Everyone should be free to be fully who they are without having to choose between an oppressive work situation and homelessness.

I've struggled with financial instability nearly every year I've been in business. My first year, I took on a $100k+ tech contract. The money was good, but...