Gay Times launches Amplifund campaign resisting the exclusion of the trans community from LGBTQ+

Gay Times, the LGBTQIA+ magazine, along with Grey London, has launched an Amplifund campaign titled Incomplete Without the T. The campaign arrived yesterday during Trans Awareness Week in response to what the magazine has deemed as increased transphobia and hate in the global media. Tag Warner, CEO of Gay Times, claims that “2021 has become the deadliest year for trans people on record,” and recently, the LGB Alliance have called for the T to be removed from LGBTQ+.

With the aim of raising visibility of trans issues, Grey London came up with the idea of removing the letter “T” from a range of different texts to highlight the erasure of a letter from “any word, in any language”. This means reducing or removing both the comprehension and the unity behind it – “and the same is true when you remove the T from LGBTQ+,” states the magazine. Creatives Chaz Mather and Lucy Jones couldn’t understand “why anyone would want to remove the “T” from an acronym that stands for unity and equality, especially when transgender people have played such an important role in LGBTQ+ history and such an important part of the queer community,” they explain.

The graphics, which can be seen across posters and social media posts, feature slogans written in bold, thick type in order to stand out and address the sobering nature of the campaign. The type leaves the letter “T” out of all its words, showcasing the lack of sense in the sentences when this letter is removed, echoing the aims of the campaign in protesting exclusion. The colour palette takes from the trans flag which is made up of light blue, soft pink and white; a mix of colours which are typically prescribed as “masculine” and “feminine”.

The campaign, which launched to a live audience during Trans Awareness Week at Gay Times Honours, was first introduced with a video where a digital voice-over reads out speech with incoherency as the letter “T” is left out. Gay Times wanted the campaign to last beyond a designated week, so a multi-platform campaign has also been launched with OOH advertising and social posts across Gay Times' channels. Warner explains that the magazine “created Amplifund in partnership with the award-winning LGBTQ+ human rights charity GiveOut, to amplify queer voices to global audiences and support LGBTQ+ activists around the world in their campaigning and media work.”

Laura Jordan Bambach, president and chief creative officer UK at Grey, states how “trans people have led the way in LGBTQ+ rights from the Stonewall riots to our own rallies and direct actions here in the UK.” Bambach goes on to explain how being trans today is “to be faced with even more discrimination, hate and the potential for violence than many other areas of our community,” therefore it’s important that the LGBTQ+ community remains unified.