Introducing the Joyful Choice!
A brand new project from the cool guy behind Good Queer News!
I've been simmering on this idea for a while now, and after the enthusiasm I saw in the reader survey I put out a few weeks ago, I decided it was time!
If you've been following me on my main publication, Good Queer News, for any amount of time, you know that joy is something I spend a lot of time thinking about. I think about the ways to entwine joy with activism and change-making, about ways to use joy to heal and connect us. The common thread through it all: trying to encourage others to see joy not as something we stumble upon but as something we must choose, over and over again, every day.
I've written plenty of articles with ideas for how to craft a daily practice of joyful change-making, but now it's time to take things a step further!
My new publication, called "The Joyful Choice", is a short, daily prompt with an opportunity to choose joy. The month will include a variety of opportunities to play, to enact change in your community, to reflect on your values, to learn more about advocates and heroes, and to undergo meaningful acts of self and community care.
It will be grounded in my own work as an LGBTQ+ rights advocate, but will be a useful and enjoyable exercise for queer folks and allies alike, and will include joyful choices for supporting a variety of communities and causes.
How to Use this Newsletter
Each day, you'll get a recommendation or a nudge from me. What you do after that is entirely up to you. Maybe it inspires you to make a totally different, unrelated joyful choice for the day. Maybe you're not up for it today, but you stash it away for later. I don't care! All I care about is that you take opportunities to choose joy—in big ways and small—as often as you can.
What are my guiding principals as I do this?
Play, wonder, and awe are crucial muscles that allow us to be empathetic, to think strategically, and to envision a better future
Encouragement to take positive actions, like shopping at a local LGBTQ-owned business, will almost always be more effective than negative actions like encouraging a boycott.
Difficult actions and conversations are an inevitable part of change making, but they should be paired with joyful activities to help them feel more sustainable and doable.
It doesn't matter if it's perfect, it matters if it's done. Complete these suggestions imperfectly, partially, or come up with a new but somehow related task that makes more sense for you. Take a break for a day, a week, a month. But try!
This is 100% human-generated content! No AI has been or will be used here. For more information, check out my AI policy.
What's up with the paid subscription?
While technically there is a free subscription option here, the daily posts will be limited to paid subscribers. For free subscribers, you’ll receive a monthly roundup of all the joyful choices I posted that month in bulk for a more DIY experience.
I know the emails you receive might seem short and easy, but writing a daily email in perpetuity as one single person is a tremendous amount of work! I'm charging $1 a month for this newsletter. If I get 100 subscribers, and I take 30 minutes to ideate, write, edit, and format 30 posts (15 hours), I'm making a grand total of $6.7 per hour!
Also, I try to do as much free stuff as I can. Especially things that feel pressing, like my work at Good Queer News, or my public webinars about getting involved in advocacy. Having additional ways that people can engage with and support my work in a paid capacity allows me to pay my bills and keep building other things for free!
The cost of subscribing, for right now, is $1 a month or $6 a year, and if you're already a paid subscriber to Good Queer News, send me a message and I will make your subscription free! This offer includes folks who already have comped GQN subscriptions, too!
As I made the practice with good queer news, if you want a free upgrade to paid, you can share this newsletter with friends, buy & review a copy of my book (and tell me about it), or literally just ask me and I will upgrade you for free, no questions asked.
I'm glad you're here!
I'm thrilled you're reading this, whether you're a new subscriber (thanks!!) or someone who is scoping out the site to figure out if this is worth a whole dollar (I hope it is!).
If there are specific things you're hoping I'll touch on, or a specific reason you came here, I'd love to know about it!
And last, but certainly not least, this is my brand new project. It would mean so much to me to have any support spreading the word about this newsletter. Share it with a friend! Post it on your social media! Tell your local carrier pigeon!
That’s all for now. Thanks so much, folks!
Trying to figure out how to message you to get the free joyful choice since I already pay for your main newsletter, but alas, I don't have the app. Hopefully, this works….