Uncloseted Media Earns Four National Journalism Awards, Tying With The New York Times in NLGJA Honors
Spencer Macnaughton | Uncloseted Media Weekly Newsletter
I am beyond thrilled to announce that Uncloseted Media has won *four* prestigious awards from the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.
The NLGJA Excellence in Journalism Awards, established in 1993, recognize outstanding journalism on issues related to the LGBTQ community.
For me, these honors are particularly meaningful because of my history with the organization.
When I moved to New York City 12 years ago to study journalism at Columbia’s Grad School, one of my fondest memories was serving as the NLGJA Chapter co-president alongside Uncloseted advisory board member and good friend Liz Lucking! We brought in Andy Cohen to talk about the intersection of pop culture and hard journalism and we held a panel to discuss covering the queer beat in 2015 (a quite different conversation way back then!).
After graduating, I was selected as a young journalist to attend the NLGJA conference in San Francisco, where I was mentored by CBS Sunday Morning producer—and now good friend—Dustin Stephens. I then joined the NLGJA New York chapter as their event coordinator alongside Patrick Henderson and Zach Wichter.
A decade later, I have the privilege of editing the next generation of queer journalists. But here’s the best part: The talent among these journalists is so impressive that they don’t need huge oversight. I am floored by their ability to dig into stories that are versatile and complex. They report with a professionalism and a mix of compassion and skepticism that you expect from the most seasoned veteran journalists.
There are a few noteworthy elements to these awards that I want to highlight:
We won for reporting in a wide diversity of areas: excellence in long-form journalism, excellence in business coverage, excellence in HIV/AIDS coverage and excellence in education coverage.
Each of our award-winning stories were reported or co-reported by four young queer women.
We tied with The New York Times for the most total awards given to a single outlet. But what I’m more proud of is that we are a newsroom of four full-time staffers, compared to the NYT’s staff of roughly 6,000 global employees.
Lastly and most importantly: These stories would have been left untold if it weren’t for our reporting. And every single of these investigations are critical. All of our award-winning stories are linked below, along with an outline of their key findings.
Long-form journalism:
Sam Donndelinger took months investigating this tough but critical topic. While research is limited, reports suggest that almost half of sex trafficking survivors are boys. But as of 2025, there are zero safe houses for boys under 18.
This story affected me the most because of Sam’s interviews with survivors:
At 16 years old, Jose Alfaro remembers being trapped in a dimly lit room and told to give a naked stranger a massage and “let him do what he wants.”
“I was terrified and I had a bodily reaction of tremor, just shaking uncontrollably,” Alfaro, now 34, told Uncloseted Media. “I felt cold, even though I wasn’t cold. I didn’t know what to do when I’m in a room with two adult men and the door is locked.”
Business reporting:
Imogen Sayers and I uncovered that Inspire Investing, founded by Robert Netzly in 2015, is one of several financial firms specializing in what’s known as biblically responsible investing—a rapidly growing, socially conservative form of Christian faith-based investing that steers Christians away from companies that support or promote LGBTQ rights or inclusive policies.
Netzly says his company is “growing like a weed,” with over $3.2 billion of assets under management, up from the $35 million they had eight years ago.
HIV/ AIDS reporting:
Hope Pisoni uncovered how the devil is in the details with the Trump administration’s dismantling of HIV/ AIDS funding. Hope found that the National Institutes of Health alone cut $1.353 billion from HIV funding in the first five months of Trump 2.0, a number that has likely increased.
“I am immensely proud for this momentous achievement for such a young publication,” says Pisoni. “On a personal level, it’s vindicating to see that, while the largest and best-resourced news publications in the U.S. continue to leave the trans community out in the cold in their coverage, independent journalism done by an early-career trans woman like myself can pick up that slack and do important and meaningful work.”
Education reporting:
Emma Paidra and I spoke with people who had their lives shaped by corporal punishment—a form of child abuse that is still legal nationwide in homes in and in 17 states in schools. We found that the practice is disproportionately used to punish queer kids.
“I am grateful to work on pieces of such profound importance,” says Paidra. “Both to those who shared their stories with me, and to queer people who see their experiences reflected in my work. Winning the NLGJA award is a powerful reminder of the impact that LGBTQ journalism can have.”
Congratulations to our whole team. And if you want to celebrate and support our award-winning investigative journalism, feel free to upgrade to become a paid or founding subscriber or donate below.
🏳️🌈📺🇨🇦🏒I had a great time appearing on Global News' "The Morning Show" on Wednesday to discuss all things Pride and Heated Rivalry. At a time when the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S. is considering putting a warning label on trans content, queer visibility on TV can transform culture and literally save lives. Watch here:
US judge limits enforcement of Idaho’s transgender bathroom access law (Reuters)
A federal judge on Tuesday barred Idaho from fully enforcing a new state law making it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for transgender people to use public restrooms whose designations differ from their sex assigned at birth.
Queer panic erupts as AI face scanners installed across San Francisco gay bars (PinkNews)
Facial recognition scanners are appearing at gay venues in The Castro
Tens of thousands join Pride marches in Romania, Bulgaria to call for equality (AP News)
Marchers walked through Bucharest in Romania and Sofia in Bulgaria, waving colorful flags and blowing whistles and calling for equality.
Fox hosts force JD Vance to eat “pickle cake” as part of bizarre anti-gay joke (LGBTQ Nation)
Chocolate cake is apparently “too gay” now.
MLB Warns Giants Pitchers Who Wore Bible Verses on Caps During ‘Pride Night’ (Sports Illustrated)
Giants pitcher Landen Roupp wrote a Bible verse on his cap for the team’s game on Pride Night.
Over the next week, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting:
🆕 SATURDAY: In the lead up to America’s 250th birthday, we’ll be collaborating with Rebecca from hankycode on timelines about key events in LGBTQ history since 1776. We’ll be kicking it off with a timeline focused on sexual orientation, and following up soon with another on gender diversity and the trans community.
🆕 On the next episode of “UNCLOSETED, with Spencer Macnaughton,” I’ll be speaking with Shy Sotomayor, a dominatrix who revealed in April that she had a nine-year relationship with Bryon Noem, the husband of former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to email me with questions, complaints and story ideas!
Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief — spencer@unclosetedmedia.com
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