Zach Stafford on the Future of Queer Media and Stepping Into Big "AM To DM" Shoes

"It feels very surreal every time someone says it to me," Zach Stafford told WNYC's Rebecca Carroll this week about becoming the first black editor of The Advocate, the country's oldest gay magazine. Stafford, who is the former head of content for the gay dating app Grindr, says The Advocate's editorship bestows its holder with a certain honor, and it also comes with a very real sense of responsibility.

"I've spent a lot of time in the archives of The Advocate, and I've seen how folks that look like us were literally erased for years and years," he said. "For me to be in this role is a nice thing. It also makes you feel the heaviness of 50 years." 

In addition to Stafford's work with Grindr, he also served at the app's digital magazine, INTO, and at Out Magazine as Editor-at-Large. He noted that LGBTQ-driven media is currently redefining how it tells stories about LGBTQ people. "What queer people are wanting now is to see themselves alongside the mainstream stories, but they want it told in a way that makes you think that you're looking through a queer lens. And so they want a specificity of queerness."     

It's hard to imagine how Stafford juggles the enormity of his position at The Advocate with being the new co-host of AM to DM, Buzzfeed's popular morning show, but he maintains that both roles feed each other -- as much, he says, as the chemistry and relationship between AM to DM's original co-hosts and real-life best friends, Saeed Jones and Isaac Fitzgerald. "I think right now it's really hard for a lot of us to be vulnerable in media, and I saw how successful it was for them and for the show. So it's really pushing me to say what I actually think, and not hide behind the reporting of everyone else."