What is Fording the River Styx?
Fording the River Styx is a newsletter you can receive right in your email that features news and analysis on LGBTQ and other social justice issues by Zack Ford. You should sign up to receive it, so that way it’ll get sent to you as soon as it’s out! It’s cool if you just want to check it out on the website, but if you subscribe, then you’re sure to never miss it.
“It’s a must read.” - GLAAD
“It should be a part of everyone’s morning, every single morning, no joke.” - Bryan Safi, Throwing Shade
“Everyone interested in queer news should subscribe.” - Brennan Suen, Media Matters
Who am I?
I’m Zack Ford, and I’ve been writing about LGBTQ politics for a while now. You may have seen my content over at ThinkProgress (R.I.P.) or heard me on the David Feldman Show. Ever since I came out as gay, I’ve fundamentally believed it important to educate the world about queer identities so that we can all better understand and respect each other. Having originally planned to be a music teacher, I changed tracks to pursue social justice education at the university level, but then — after turning to personal blogging and podcasting during my recession unemployment — wound up pursuing that kind of advocacy through a career in journalism instead. I currently provide press communications for a phenomenal organization called Alliance for Justice, but views expressed here are my own.
You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook if you’d like. Actually, here’s my Linktree with all my social media accounts and links.
Why did I start this newsletter?
Part of it was personal. In early 2019, my beat changed at ThinkProgress and I was taken off the LGBTQ issues I’d covered for eight years and assigned to the Trump administration beat (blech!). Fording the River Styx was a place to maintain my dedication to covering LGBTQ issues, especially as the breadth of such coverage was declining.
Back in the 2000s, we had a pretty thriving LGBTQ blogosphere, with citizen journalists from all over elevating local stories, tracking the religious right, and keeping people informed about what was impacting the LGBTQ community when nobody else would. Gradually, more mainstream sites recognized the importance of this coverage and the blogosphere started to fade. But then in 2018, the Facebook apocalypse hit digital media, and queer coverage took a significant blow. I wanted to try to fill that void a bit.
I originally stopped publishing the newsletter when I took a new job after ThinkProgress’ closure. In 2021, I relaunched it to continue my passion for educational reporting and analysis on social justice issues.
What to expect from this newsletter?
I never had some grand plan. The original incarnation of this newsletter capitalized on the LGBTQ newsgathering I was already doing daily and turned into a sort of round-up of LGBTQ news. The new version will focus more on commentary and analysis — essays on specific topics instead of the aggregation model.
I’m very open to ideas. If there are issues you don’t understand or you want to see more analysis about, let me know. I don’t want this to be driven by my own ego alone, so feel free to suggest topics.
Also, as a cis white guy (he/him), I recognize that I might not be tuned into everything I should be catching, so please don’t hesitate to let me know (zackford@substack.com) if there are things I miss or other great writers and outlets I should be checking out!
How soon until you start charging?
While I loved Substack when it first launched, I’m now rather dismayed by the company’s unwillingness to engage in content moderation while profiting off of dangerous and hateful perspectives. I will not be charging or placing any of my content behind a paywall so long as Substack functions in this way.
Why Fording The River Styx?
Many of my fellow Millennials will surely recall that in The Oregon Trail, fording a river was one of the biggest risks you could take, but sometimes it was your only option. The River Styx comes from Greek mythology’s underworld, with the word “Styx” meaning “hate.” And, well, my last name is Ford. Ha.
I’ll leave this last bit of the pre-written “about page” text here because it’s cool that there’s a great site like this: To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
