Hey John,

Thanks for being a subscriber of The Needle.

It's crazy to think that just 3 months ago, The Needle - News didn't exist. In our first roughly 2.5 months of existence, from October 25th until today, approaching the official beginning of 2026, we've hit a lot of milestones.

We've established new news processes. We've also grown the team to 4 people, 50% of which are from the Global Majority, 75% of which are transfem, and all of which are transsexual.

We've also begun to really dive into our mission of building trans news AND trans culture, and we were nominated for The Transfeminine Review's best Publisher award category this year.

Further, our Brazil and Games reporter, Roberta was tied for votes with Gretchen Felker-Martin in The Transfeminine Review's longlist for Best Reviewer/Critic.

Our co-founder, Artemis, was third place on The Transfeminine Review's Best Academic award, but she lost to the well-deserved blowout of Talia Bhatt's commanding first place win!

In 2.5 months, we've done a lot of news work, some culture work, and launched a handful of long-term investigations into anti-trans actors.

We've done all this on a shoe string budget, but that needs to change for us to continue.

This would be the part where we ask you to upgrade to a paid membership at the link below, but first, we want to explain what we'll do with your continued support.

Membership

You can pick the right paid membership tier for you, below. We recommend Gold!

The Needle - News •The Needle

1. We plan to continue our long-form investigations into the rise of anti-trans pseudoscience not just in the US but also across Europe.
2. We plan to do more cultural coverage in the form of more games/books/other media reviews.
3. We plan to continue to pay independent trans writers for their work in our Creative column, and would like to be able to do that far more often.

In short, we have big plans for solid journalism in both news and culture. Big plans require the finances that can only come from "Big Audience Support" or "Big Money", and the latter is something we refuse to consider taking.

This is where we at The Needle humbly ask for you to consider upgrading. If you're a free member, Bronze Needle starts at $5 a month or $50 a year. If you're already a paid member, thank you so much.

You can subscribe by clicking the below links for each tier:

• Bronze, $5 a month
• Silver, $9 a month (unlock more articles)
• Gold, $15 a month (unlock all articles)
• Platinum, $24 a month (unlock all articles + get added to our supporters' thank you/credits)

You can also click the box below to choose any plan, including the yearly plans:

The Needle - News

Digitally-native, globally-focused trans coverage by us, for us.

The Needle - News •Jane Migliara Brigham

We'll be back in 2026, with so much more!

-- Artemis, Jane, and the team