To our wonderful readers,
We are proud to announce that MadyCast News is now relaunching as the Trans News Network, a worker-run nonprofit newsroom under Community Partners. We’re also leaving Substack for Beehiiv.
TNN emerges out of the continuing need — now more than ever — for trans journalism that is unapologetic, hard-hitting, radical and high quality. As a worker-run newsroom, our structure aligns our workers’ interests with our workers’ labor. We bring together experiences and skills from a wide array of trans journalists on the front lines and we make decisions collectively.
The founding of TNN is not motivated by profit, personal branding, or career; it’s about empowering trans communities under fire from billionaire oligarchs with compassionate and well-informed independent journalism. To that end, Mady Castigan will not label herself as “founder” of TNN and will continue to not take a dollar of pay from the organization so long as she has other means of survival.
Instead, all five journalists who banded together to make this possible will comprise our Founding Advisory Board to ensure the work of the newsroom maintains our collective ideals fighting for liberation across the lines of class, gender, race, disability, immigration status, and more.
Our shift to a tax-exempt nonprofit, with the indispensable help of Community Partners as our 501c(3) fiscal sponsor, will allow us to greatly expand our operations and coverage in the months to come. All of your subscription donations on our platform, as well as to our fundraiser, will be considered tax-deductible donations to Community Partners for Trans News Network, which means supporters who itemize their deductions can deduct all donations to our work from their taxable income. You can also donate via check following these steps (earmarked for Trans News Network) to help us avoid payment processor fees–please include your email\!
As part of this transition (appropriately for the Trans News Network) we are moving our platform from Substack to Beehiiv. We’ve heard loud and clear our readers’ concerns about the far-right ties of Substack’s management. Among the many other benefits of this switch — such as improved features and lower platform fees — we join the community’s grassroots boycott against a platform which has bolstered many fascists who have wrought incalculable harm to trans and immigrant communities.
We also need your support to make this transition happen. In order to fund our initial efforts, we are kicking off **a special one-month launch fundraiser to raise $10,000,** with FREE gifts shipped to your door depending on your level of support. Free gifts include a signed thank you letter for $40 or more, a trans-themed wristband for $70 or more, and a high-quality autographed canvas print of TNN’s banner image for $250 or more – the photo from the top of this email. In addition, an anonymous donor will 1:1 match the first $5,000 of your donations. Reaching our fundraising goal will provide us the financial stability we need to hire a trans journalist part time and greatly increase our coverage in the months to come.
Considering how much we have accomplished this year, with just a tiny fraction of the resources of larger organizations, even a modest donation to TNN helps bring seismic change to the world of trans journalism. With just under $6,000 raised so far this year, we have brought you:
The first reporting on how the Byrd rule could be used to strike the trans Medicaid ban in Trump’s megabill that passed earlier this month, with the ban eventually struck due to grassroots pressure on Democrats to invoke the rule.
RAINN’s erasure of trans people from their website, which led to followup articles by two of the biggest newspapers in the country citing our work. Our coverage of NSVRC’s similar erasure also prompted community pushback and the restoration of important resources about sexual violence for the LGBTQ+ community.
Early reporting on the HHS rule targeting trans healthcare on ACA plans, which helped spur tens of thousands of comments on the federal registry.
We understand not all our readers can afford a donation, but anyone can help our cause by sharing our fundraiser with their friends, families, and allies. Every dollar funds a living wage of $28 an hour for trans journalists, many of whom have faced poverty and homelessness. This wage is up to four times higher than some of our journalists have worked for in the past, and our reporters’ ability to focus their time on their work, rather than staying well-fed and off the streets, is key to our dual mission of empowering trans journalists to report on important news.
"The pay from TNN for my work as an experienced editor and journalist has been lifechanging," David Forbes said. "Despite over two decades in the field, it's nearly impossible for trans journalists like me to get fair pay. TNN changes that, and it's helped me stay housed and pay the bills this year."
"I've been homeless multiple times in my life, and have had to beg strangers for cash just to keep the roof of a cockroach infested motel above my head,” Mira Lazine emphasizes.. “Thanks to donations to Trans News Network received thus far, I've been able to keep myself above water. With your help, I can actually build myself a solid future \- one without being left on the streets, wondering where I'm gonna sleep that night."
Lastly, we offer a thank you to all of our readers and supporters. None of this would be possible without your continued and sincere support.
If you’ve found our in-depth investigations, our honest views on the dangers our communities face and our effective calls to action helpful, then rest assured. There is more, much more, to come.
In solidarity,
The Founding Advisory Board of the Trans News Network,
David Forbes (she/they)
Corinne Green (she/they)
Mira Lazine (she/it)
Mady Castigan (she/her)
Tom Sayers (she/they)