Queerly Beloved

Queerly Beloved is a charity zine for Kingdom Hearts fans celebrating LGBT headcanons in honor of Pride.
==About==
The project was announced on December 3, 2020, on Twitter. Through a poll on the same site postde on January 6, 2021, the title of the zine was decided by followers to be "Queerly Beloved", with other following contending titles: "Pride Awakened", "The Hearts Collective", "Bound Hearts"https://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1346978935846756355.
Contributor applications for writers, artists, and merch artists opened on January 24, 2021, and would remain open until February 24, 2021https://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1353586189585022977. Acceptance emails were sent on March 3, 2021https://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1367284044598157312.
Preorders were originally slated to open on July 3, 2021, but was the delayed to July 7th due to technical issueshttps://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1411444266774286338. The following pricing tiers were offeredhttps://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1412816998766190594:
* "It Began With a letter..." Digital Zine Tier ($5 USD) - Digital Zine
* "It Began With a letter..." Tier 1 ($10 USD) - Digital Zine, Social Media Headers, Wallpapers
* "It Began With a letter..." Tier 2 ($15 USD) - Tier 1, Coloring Pages
* "It Began With a letter..." Tier 3 ($30 USD) - Tier 2, Emojis, Icons
* "Dearly Dreams" Tier 1 ($5) - Social Media Headers, Wallpapers
* "Dearly Dreams" Tier 1 ($10) - Tier 1, Coloring Pages
* "Dearly Dreams" Tier 1 ($25) - Tier 2, Emojis, icons, Templates
* "Memories in Pieces" ($35) - Washi tape, Enamel Pin, Face mask, Sticker Sheet, Stretch Goals
* "Just an Itty Bitty Too Much" - ($50 USD) - Digital Zine, Digital Merch, Washi Tape, Enamel Pin, Face Mask, Sticker Sheet, Stretch Goals
Stretch Goals included a holographic print at 25 physical bundle orders and an acrylic charm at 50 bundle ordershttps://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1412817086276157444. On September 7, 2021, the mod team announced that profits made from the zine would be donated to the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network, and that preorders would be extended until September 18, 2021https://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1435392440827977735. Digital bundles continued to be sold after preorders closed.
No updates were made on the project's social media accounts until February 7, 2022, where the mod team apologized for unresponsiveness and that production was slowhttps://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1490938064595607555. From then on, the mod team posted updates on merch production to social media accounts.
The zine was digitally released on August 30, 2022, for Gumroad and Etsy customershttps://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1564734089592127488. No other updates had been made on the zine's social media accounts since then.
 Project Schedule
 	Start 	End
Interest Check 	December 3, 2020	-
Contributor Applications	January 6, 2021 	February 23, 2021
Preorders 	July 7, 2021 	September 18, 2021
Shipping 	August 30, 2022 	-
Leftover Sales 	- 	-
===Proship Controversy===
Early into the project's development, some fans criticized the project for putting "proship" in their project's profile and featuring Akuroku as a potential pairing on promotional material. On March 2, 2021, the mod team posted the following statement on their stance:
Shortly after the announcement, the mod team posted an answer to a Tumblr ask wherein the asker accused them of including pedophilic content in the project under the assumption that "proship" was "fandom code for pedophile" and that supporting ships involving underage characters would mean supportung pedophilia in real lifehttps://lgbt-heartszine.tumblr.com/post/645047057514708992. The mods replied that their definition of "proship" meant "not policing what others ship and in no way relates to what someone may or may not personally condone or ship". The mods then pointed out that the project already had rules in place to only permit shippy content between characters within the same age bracket.
===Mod Team Addressing Concerns===
On May 3, 2021, the mod team issued a lengthy Twitter thread explaining a situation that had resulted in the withdrawal of several contributorshttps://twitter.com/lgbtheartszine/status/1389450159520587784. The following will contain secondhand accounts of the incidents.
Early in the project's interest check, the mod team posted a response to a comment that shared the interest check post, lamented that recent zine projects were oversaturated with an specific ship not specified by the mod team's thread, and also pointed out a spelling error. The mods admitted in the May thread that their response was harsh and agressive and was not the best course of action, and for that they apologized for the hurt they caused the commenter and fellow contributors in the project's Discord server. The messages since then had been taken down and are not accessible by archive. The mod team emphasized that even though some members of the mod team do not enjoy certain ships, their difference in opinions do not conflict with the project's "Ship and Let Ship" philosophy.
The second item in the mod team's thread addressed criticism of the mod team's accessibility to contributors. The thread explained that mods are just as human as everyone else and also have real world responsibilities, that time and patience is required to answer questions, and that mods are allowed to have "Off Duty" and "No DMs Until May" statuses to maintain a semi-professional setting and avoid airing their personal circumstances in the zine server or online.
Thirdly, the thread explained that the tight scheduling and "fast-paced" timeline, as the project was slated to be released in time for Pride Month, had been clear from the beginning. Since this had become a major concern among contributors, even causing some to drop out, the mod team had made adjustments to the schedule.
The next item in the thread addressed the project's Headcanon Claims procedure, which has been implied to have set a limit on the number of pieces per pairing or headcanon were allowed on the project. The mod team reasoned that this procedure was meant to allow contributors to incorporate their own headcanons into their pieces so long as the headcanon was based off of a group settings while not running into the issue of the project being dominated by the same pairing. The mod team announced that they had since then come up with a different means of encouraging diversity and that they had not intended to upset or stress out contributors.
Lastly, the mod team also addressed a headcanon vote that had been organized partly because of a mod's merch product that would have been offered during preorder period. Discussions about the vote were leaked outside of the project server and was, according to the mod team, taken out of context. To stop any potential "headcanon turf wars", the mod team had decided on an alternative solution to satisfy all concerned parties.
==Contributors==
The following names were taken from the project's social media account.
===Page Artists===
* Asoka (0utlastingspace)
* Beautiful World (beautif51504434)
* Ben (wayfinder_3)
* bridlett
* calamans_i
* cypii - Guest
* Evyn V. (evynvenpha)
* floatylatte
* Jellimakes
* Jeredu (JereduLevenin) - Guest
* Kari (kawree)
* Kives (rikusboywife)
* LocalCryptid (someteainspace, ellos-art)
* Lore (paopugummi)
* Lucian-Art (Somnus__SD)
* Nemu (AdParadisum)
* Nera G. (neragranic)
* Ram (ramourzi) - Guest
* RatonPersona
* Tori (sicklyjelly) - Guest
* SirLadySketch
* Trapgears
* Valkyrie.Arts
* Vanix-Ac7 (ac7-art)
===Merch Artists===
* BarrierSurge
* Dillion the Bunwitch - Guest
* cypii - Guest
* Evyn V. (evynvenpha)
* Lore (paopugummi)
* Lucian-Art (Somnus__SD)
* mik (zombeamik)
* SirLadySketch
* Valkyrie.Arts
===Writers===
* Aebriel - Guest
* alicelantern - Guest
* Amitiel (absolutelynoct)
* Ange_de_la_Mort
* Antares (AlphaScorpiixx)
* Ariasune - Guest
* Cream Pudding
* Emil (popps, gracklepopp)
* Guile (ar_guile)
* MagicalNerdWarrior
* Noctislucent
* Nyxie (Salty_Nyxie)
* ottersofte
* Painted with a Palette - Guest
* PoltergeistPanda
* Rikudera
* TalysAlankil
===Mods===
* Noct - Social Media, Check-ins, Discord Mod, Product Sourcing, Shipping
* Evyn V. (evynvenpha) - Graphics, Formatting, Social Media, Product Sourcing, Administrative Duties, Finance
* Aebriel - Formatting, Sales, Discord Mod
* Hevanati (wolfecakes) - Graphics, Treasury
===Former Moderators===
* Ashe (ValkyrieArts) - Mod
* Kari (kawree) - Art Mod, Merch Mod
* Mai (maikusakabe) - Finance Mod
* Kry - Organizational Mod
==Gallery==
File:Queerly beloved zine header.png|Social Media Header
File:Queerly beloved digital bundle.png|Digital Bundle Listing
File:Queerly beloved full bundle.png|Full Bundle Listing
File:Queerly beloved stretch goals.png|Stretch Goals
== References ==
Category:Kingdom Hearts
Category:2022 Zines