Beyond the rainbow logos
A Q&A with Joseph Darius Jaafari … Deport Force 2 … And Hail to the Chief.
About two and a half years ago, Arizona got its only LGBTQ+ news outlet.
Joseph Darius Jaafari grew up in Mesa, “as a young teenager who was Middle Eastern, closeted, and railed hard against religion. Being gay, though, was the hardest part of (his) identity,” he wrote in a newsletter introducing the LOOKOUT publication.
Jaafari has covered police, prisons and the military for The Marshall Project and as an investigative reporter at the Arizona Republic. He told us the Republic was publishing op-eds on anti-LGBTQ bills in the state Legislature before he left, but didn’t have a lot of reported pieces on the bills that let readers reach out to their elected officials before they were voted on.
“I figured we really needed something robust. I kind of looked at the news ecosystem of LGBTQ media outlets out there … and there is not a single investigative, accountability-focused news outlet that's for the community across the nation,” Jaafari said. “And so we kind of said, fuck it, let's do it ourselves.”
LOOKOUT got a $400,000 grant from the American Journalism Project to start the country’s only accountability-centered news outlet for LGBTQ+ issues. Since it launched, LOOKOUT has published a lot of important stories, like how Corporation Commission candidates’ anti-LGBTQ+ policies could hurt the community’s businesses and how school board members doubled down on anti-trans rhetoric in a leaked meeting.
LGBTQ+ issues are everywhere, but the coverage Jaafari saw was focused on Pride Month and feel-good stories. The far-right uprising has come with a deluge of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, so the stories LOOKOUT covers are more important than ever.
Something that often goes unspoken, however, is that the anti-transgender narrative is just a starting point, Jaafari said. Texas is advancing a bill to ban clubs based on sexuality or gender identity, for example.
“Targeting trans youth, that is not the end goal. That is a door opening to blast it open and do much more devastating consequences for the queer community in general,” he said. "It very much is about trying to make sure that queer people go back in the closet and kind of like, live their lives one way indoors and kind of conform to certain things outdoors.”
It’s not easy to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community right now. So when it comes to balancing hard truths and offering hope, LOOKOUT has a special approach.
People don’t read solutions-based stories, Jaafari found, so he’s split his company into mission-focused news and events. LOOKOUT’s Summer of Solutions series gives attendees tools to make actionable changes, and it’s happening throughout June.
Here’s what Jaafari had to say to the five “fun” questions we threw his way:
Q: I did a little social media stalking, and it seems like you're a little obsessed with tacos. Where was the best taco you’ve had recently?
A: The tacos at a El Califa de León Tempe pop-up. Everyone had to wait two hours in line, but Jaafari and his husband got right in for Taco Tuesday.
Q: Who was the first queer icon you were obsessed with?
A: RuPaul. His sister gave him a tape of “Supermodel,” and Jaafari “put on her cheerleading outfit, and just danced.”
Q: If you could instantly fund one big LOOKOUT project with unlimited money, what would it be?
A: Jaafari would beef up queer newsrooms in rural areas.
“Being nonprofits, we have to jump around to all these different conferences and like, beg for money from everybody. Wherever we go … they're always like, we need something like you all in Texas, in Florida, in Oklahoma and Iowa and Kansas, because there's nothing else like us in the nation. There are plenty of LGBTQ news outlets, but they're all kind of toothless.”
Q: LOOKOUT does a really good job with event calendars. What’s the best event you’ve been to so far this year?
A: Rainbows Festival is Jaafari’s favorite — LOOKOUT doesn’t “just do a booth, we do an activation,” he said. At the Phoenix Pride event, LOOKOUT handed out bouquets with different flowers that people used back in the day to signal to others they were gay. Last year, they did a pop-up photo museum of people who’ve been persecuted for being gay.
He hasn’t been to many good events this year, however.
“I left Arizona when I was 17 because I didn't feel like the community here was really all that interested in being out loud and like, crazy and proud,” Jaafari said. “What I'm trying to do is kind of bring all those big city queer vibes to this big city.”
Q: What’s your favorite story you’ve ever reported?
A: Jaafari wrote a story about a man who had a cell phone in prison and catfished someone. He interviewed the family of the person who was scammed, and they didn’t like his coverage.
“That was a very big learning lesson for me, because it taught me what it meant to be honest and truthful and caring with my sources as well as telling a story with dignity, while also not trying to do the cutthroat journalism that we're kind of trained to do,” he said.
One-way ticket to China: The New York Times picked up a story from the Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy about Vice President JD Vance’s campaign airplane’s new gig: Deporting migrants. MacDonald-Evoy, a noted plane nerd, has been following the flight path of the 23-year-old N917XA, which was formerly used to shuttle the VP and is now among the “ICE Air” fleet, and has made at least 16 flights to Central and South America. Meanwhile, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that the U.S. will start revoking visas from Chinese students, students at ASU and UA are scrambling, the Associated Press reports. ASU has about 2,500 Chinese visa students, while UA has more than 500. And the Department of Homeland Security is yanking funding from a handful of DHS-funded “Centers of Excellence” at universities across the nation that conducted research into domestic national security, including one at ASU that worked on improvements to border control, per NOTUS.
Hear Yee, Hear Yee: Formerly a beacon of hope for traditional Republicans, Kimberly Yee has realigned herself with the MAGA movement in her bid to become the next school superintendent, Substacker Robert Robb writes. He says Yee’s quick boarding of the MAGA train — and joining Arizona Sen. Jake Hoffman’s beef against current school superintendent Tom Horne — proves she will do anything for another political advancement.
“(S)ince pursuing elected office, she has generally struck me as a politician on the make, willing to ride whatever political currents will get her to her next destination,” Robb writes.
Biggs changes on the horizon: Election-denying Congressman Andy Biggs says if he becomes governor, we’ll have faster election results, lower taxes, and a bunch of conservative laws that Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed. Biggs held his first campaign rally over the weekend, teaming up with the folks at Turning Point USA, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports.
Elections don’t have consequences: A Superior Court judge is allowing Cochise County to hold a do-over of its 2023 jail tax election because the county didn’t send roughly 11,000 ballots to inactive voters (which counties must do in municipal tax district elections), per Votebeat’s Jen Fifield. After the SNAFU, lawmakers changed the law so that counties don’t have to send ballots to inactive voters. Voters approved the new jail tax by about 750 votes.
“I think it’s probably the right result,” election lawyer Jim Barton told Fifield. “Eleven thousand people didn’t get their ballot.”
A fine for being poor: Tucson residents who sued the city over a homeless encampment scored a victory at the Arizona Court of Appeals, which overturned a lower court ruling and said their case could continue. People who live near the Navajo Wash Park say the park became unusable and unsafe, and the city did nothing about it, per KOLD’s Raya Torres. Meanwhile, Tucson’s new anti-panhandling ordinance is racking up citations — 67 in a single day in April. The citations come with a $250 fine or a day in jail, KGUN’s Athena Kehoe reports.
Luckily, they haven’t outlawed digital panhandling yet.
Spare some change?
Can’t buy love: President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman to be the next NASA administrator after the president found out that the billionaire and buddy of Elon Musk had donated a couple thousand dollars to astronaut and Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and a handful of other Democrats over the years, the New York Times reports. Isaacman had also donated $2 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.
Throwing shade: Rhesus macaque monkeys aren’t great at sharing, but after their trees were destroyed in a 2017 hurricane, they started being cooler about sharing their shade, researcher Camille Testard tells Mark Brodie on KJZZ’s “The Show.” There’s a lesson to be learned for humans here, though we’re not actually sure what it is.
“It's just really, really hot, and if you are battling with issues of heat and heat stress, and you are at risk of a heat stroke, being aggressive and chasing around other monkeys is actually not the best strategy,” Testard said.
A couple of things about President Donald Trump’s cell phone.
First, what’s your screensaver?
Probably your kids, significant other or pet, right? Something you love. Or at least, some pretty scenery.
Trump’s screensaver is an image of his own face.
Second, Andy Biggs has been bragging about having Trump’s cell number.
It’s become something of a litmus test in the Arizona governor’s race.
Biggs used the digits to differentiate himself from fellow Trump gubernatorial co-endorsee, Karrin Taylor Robson, during Biggs’ rally on Saturday.
“He’s endorsed me,” Biggs reminded the crowd. “And I will say this —— there’s a difference between being endorsed by President Trump and being endorsed by President Trump and having his personal cell phone number. And I’ve got it!”
Biggs also slid it into a recent radio interview, noting that Trump rang him up during the commercial break.
Third, that reminds us — you know who else was on Trump’s speed dial?