R.I.P. Queerty

It’s over.

Hours ago, Queerty founder David Hauslaib (whose role in recent years has been vague) sent the below email to several Queerty staffers, writers, and friends.

Hello friends,

Some five and a half years ago I launched my second blog, Queerty, after seeing an opening for a new type of LGBT site. It joined Jossip, and would son be followed by two sister sites. That journey has come to an end: Queerty is closing.

Along the way, Queerty has grown to reach an audience of a million visitors each month, driving the international news cycle and fostering conversations among and about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. I’m very proud of the work Queerty accomplished, covering news and entertainment, music and culture, politics, celebrity, career, sports, and sex. Most of all, it is Queerty’s readers and contributors who have been the site’s biggest asset, fostering an online community that agreed with each other as often as not. Reading the conversations among readers, and the email sent in, was always a delicious perk.

As many of you know, last year Queerty partnered with the folks at 353Media to handle its operations. I transitioned out of my original role to make time to tackle some unrelated projects, and a trusted crew took the reins. Sadly last week, in a scenario that began with some technical headaches, has ended with 353 opting not to continue operating the site. It is a decision I was saddened to hear, and I worked to find an amenable solution that would keep Queerty online. That effort was unsuccessful.

I have watched web properties that I launched come to an [sic] close before, but Queerty’s end is certainly one of the hardest to see.

I apologize for the mass email, but there are a number of people I wanted to hear the news from me before the release of a formal statement.

You can continue to reach me at david@hauslaib.com. Thank you all for a wonderful experience.

Cheers
David

After “Jossip” and “Stereohyped,” Queerty is Hauslaib’s third failed website, and the explanation that Queerty failed because he couldn’t find a new web host is disingenuous, at best. Remember, Hauslaib reportedly tried to sell Queerty to Here Media (LOL) back in 2008, so this is a site he’s been wanting to get off his hands for over three years.

I’ll keep the schadenfreude at a minimum and simply say that even though there are plenty of other awful websites just like it, losing even one like Queerty, which has repeatedly fostered the wrong kinds of conversations, gloated over teen suicide, suggested fining people who acquire HIV, misled readers, gotten its facts laughably wrong, and provided a forum for some of the stupidest, most shrill commenters on the internet is still a great, great thing. Goodbye forever, Queerty!

 

17 thoughts on “R.I.P. Queerty”

  1. Estelle (as Jackie Harris)

    Queerty is gone. Queerty’s dead! Its’s dead! No, DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! No, it’s fine, it sends its love!

  2. I used to read queerty every day, but the last couple of years it had become unreadable – and not just because the quality of writing was so low. Still sad to see it finally go, though.

  3. Wow, don’t sugarcoat it! Although I do agree: Queerty went off the deep end with all that trash talk about the Black Party and then Circuit parties in general. They seemed really bitter & just plain nasty for its own sake, like a gay Gawker — and who the hell needs that? Also, they were riddled with really bad typos of the “they’re/there” & “it’s/its” variety.

  4. They announced last week they won’t be operating the site anymore? You’ve done everything possible in a week it sounds.

  5. I liked Queerty myself found lots of news on there that I did not see on some of the other more mainstream gay websites so I will miss it. Sure they did some sensational stories but I guess I like that kind of thing because I read the National Enquirer.

  6. I agree it had its bad moments, but every site that updates 30 times a day and chases the news cycle with only a few consistent writers will have bad moments. Occasionally Queerty brought real issues to the fore when other outlets were woefully behind (the Here/Regent implosion chief among them). Anyone expecting pristine reporting would obviously be let down, but how many non-corporate-owned web outlets have pristine reporting?

    Also, yes, that Hauslaib tried to sell Queerty to Here is pretty classic.

    What site(s) will reap the benefits of Queerty’s demise?

  7. I’ve always wondered why Queerty bothered you so much.
    Was it a good website…no. But, I would have thought the websites of Here/Regent would have upset you more.

  8. isn’t it pre-mature to say R.I.P.? I mean, it’s no at all clear who actually owns Queerty (which might explain why Here dropped their lawsuit against a certain individual).

  9. I read it, for largely the same reason that I occassionally watch the FOX News channel, you have to know what they are saying, as fact, so that you can be prepared to tell people the truth, when they use to make an argument that is inaccurate.

  10. While a vacant stall in the marketplace of ideas cannot be a good thing, I had noticed many stories recently seemed a bit off-key, better suited for a Queer Onion. If irony was intended, however, I missed it.

  11. I too read it every day, although I really had to start asking myself why. Over the years I read it, the quality spiraled so far down that it became like a parody. I think most people who did still check in, did so purely to see what they would screw up this time.

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