We Left. We've Never Looked Back.
In January 2022, we packed our lives into suitcases, handed over the keys to our California apartment, and flew out of the US. We haven't been back since. This is TrueQueer — built from the road.
Who We Are
We're Jeff and Zachary — a married gay couple from California who have been traveling the world full-time since January 2022. We run withJZ LLC and spend our days writing, shooting photos and video, and building digital projects from wherever we happen to be. Zachary has a deep passion for genealogy — researching family histories and helping others discover their roots and the stories that connect them to the past.
We've been living out of bags for over four years now. We spend four to six months of the year in Albania — yes, Albania — and the rest scattered across Europe, both inside the Schengen zone and beyond: the Balkans, Georgia, the Caucasus, and wherever curiosity takes us. We've grown particularly attached to Tirana, Albania's chaotic, colorful, rapidly-changing capital. It's not the most obvious destination for two gay Americans, but it's become something like a second home.
Why TrueQueer
We started paying attention to the state of LGBTQ+ media and didn't love what we found. Eighteen US states have zero local LGBTQ+ news outlets. National platforms that used to cover our community have been gutted by DEI rollbacks. Social media platforms have stripped protections for LGBTQ+ content. And the void left behind is increasingly filled by algorithmic clickbait, rage content, and doom-scrolling.
We wanted something different: a site that reports facts without spin, covers the full spectrum of our community, and doesn't treat every story as either a catastrophe or a celebration. The LGBTQ+ community is 25 million people in the US alone. We deserve media that takes us seriously — and that's what we're building.
We also wanted to cover parts of the world that don't get much attention from LGBTQ+ media. The Balkans are fascinating — countries at different stages of building (or resisting) LGBTQ+ rights, with complicated histories and rapidly shifting politics. We're here. We see it firsthand. We write about it.
How We Work
TrueQueer is an independent publication. We don't take direction from political parties, advocacy groups, or corporate sponsors. We use AI assistance in our publishing workflow — that's part of how two people can produce daily content from the road — but we edit everything, stand behind everything we publish, and follow our editorial guidelines strictly.
Our editorial compass: report facts, let readers form their own conclusions, and speak from the LGBTQ+ perspective without injecting political agendas or bias. When we cover rights erosion, we're reporting what's factually happening — that IS the LGBTQ+ perspective, not a political opinion. When we cover a Pride event or a queer film, we approach it as journalists who genuinely care, not as influencers chasing engagement.
We also write honestly about our own lives — what it's actually like to be gay, married, and financially untethered from any single country. Not all of it is glamorous. Some of it is genuinely hard. We write about that too.
The Values
Inclusivity
We cover the full LGBTQ+ spectrum — gay, lesbian, bi, trans, nonbinary, asexual, intersex, queer. Not just the loudest voices.
Innovation
We embrace new tools to publish better, faster content — without sacrificing quality or losing the human voice behind it.
Integrity
We fact-check claims, cite sources, and acknowledge when we get things wrong. Trust is everything for an independent publication.
Independence
No party line. No corporate overlords. No algorithm telling us what to write. Just our perspective and our community's.
Get in Touch
We're reachable by email at hello@truequeer.com. We're also on Bluesky and Instagram. If you have a tip, a story idea, or just want to say hello from wherever you are in the world — please do.