Beyond tokenism: Queerstion Media's bold vision for intersectional anti-racism

In a world where diversity initiatives often become checkboxes on institutional to-do lists, one organisation is rewriting the rules. Queerstion Media is igniting a revolution in how we understand, embrace, and embody intersectional justice.

BIPOC LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers across Europe, navigating systems that weren't built for them, carrying stories that demand to be heard. 

These are the voices at the heart of Queerstion Media's “Anti-Racism Training Series”, a powerful initiative that refuses to separate queerness from race, migration from identity, or activism from lived experience.

The power of intentional preparation

Since April 2025, while other organisations were rushing to deliver content, Queerstion Media chose a different path, one of deep listening and intentional design. They began with what matters most: understanding the real needs of those they serve.

Through comprehensive needs assessment, the team immersed themselves in the challenges faced by BIPOC LGBTQI+ refugees, asylum seekers, and community leaders. They created a roadmap of resilience crafted from the lived experiences of those who navigate intersecting systems of oppression daily.

The training they're building reflects this commitment: multilingual, adaptable, unapologetically centred on intersectional anti-racism advocacy.

Queerstion's work is being shaped with one question in mind indeed: 'How do we create lasting transformation?' Because we’ve had enough fleeting awareness...

A strategic pause for excellence

When summer arrived and participant availability waned, Queerstion Media made a bold choice. Rather than delivering training to meet a deadline, they pressed pause. They refined and they listened to feedback. They ensured that when they stepped onto the training stage, they would bring excellence.

As the team explains, "This adjustment ensures stronger relevance, accessibility, and sustainability of the training." Quality over convenience and depth over speed, as well as transformation over transactions is what Foundation ENAR strives to support with the Empowerment and Resilience Fund.

The selection process of organisations prioritises something too often overlooked in diversity work - genuine commitment.

"Selection will prioritize groups whose vision aligns with the project's goals and who demonstrate genuine commitment to intersectional anti-racism, rather than treating training as a tokenistic checkbox exercise," said Yassine Chagh, Project Coordinator at Queerstion Media.

Building movements and partnering with organisations that see anti-racism training not as a one-time event but as the beginning of an ongoing journey toward justice is the goal.

The road ahead: from vision to impact

The path forward is what we make it to be. Queerstion Media is preparing to:

• Launch a movement, not just a program. Through social media outreach and strategic partnerships, they'll invite organisations across Europe to join this much needed work.

• Break down language barriers. Final training materials are being translated for multilingual use, ensuring accessibility isn't an afterthought but a foundation.

• Create ripples of change. With plans to train at least 50 participants in the first sessions, each person becomes an ambassador for intersectional anti-racism in their own communities.

• Document and share learning. The final evaluation won't gather dust on a shelf; it will be shared publicly, contributing to the broader movement for racial justice across Europe.

Why this matters now

We live in times when migration policies grow more hostile and the rights of marginalised communities face renewed threats. In this landscape, top-down solutions from the very institutions that created or enabled these crises ring hollow.

What we need (what we've always needed!) is different leadership with different models of care. We need the wisdom held by those who have survived and resisted systems of oppression. We need organising that honours the interconnections between struggles rather than addressing them in isolation.

Queerstion Media was founded by African Transdiverse activists and their vision is rooted in the experiences of refugees, migrants and racialised people. They bring authenticity where others bring theory, lived experience where others bring assumptions, and revolutionary commitment where others bring performative allyship.

The invitation

More than a training program, this is catalyst for collective transformation. It's an invitation to organisations across Europe to examine their commitment to intersectional anti-racism and ask: ‘Are we here to check a box, or are we here to dismantle systems of oppression?’

For BIPOC LGBTQI+ refugees, asylum seekers, and community leaders, it's a space of affirmation, empowerment, and skill-building, where the experiences are centred as expertise.

For volunteers, partners, and board members, it's an opportunity to unlearn, reimagine, and rebuild practices that truly serve marginalised communities.

Join the revolution

Queerstion Media is inviting you to join a movement. To move beyond symbolic gestures toward systemic change: replace tokenism with transformation. To build a Europe where justice, safety, and dignity are indeed realities for all.

Because in the end, anti-racism work isn't and should never be about checking boxes or collecting certificates. It is about choosing courage over comfort, depth over optics, and liberation over empty promises.

The question is: Are you ready to Queerstion everything?

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For more information about the Anti-Racism Training Series and upcoming opportunities to participate, follow Queerstion Media and their social media channels.

Powering up the movement

Foundation ENAR and ENAR's "Empowerment and Resilience Fund" has been a game-changer for anti-racism organisations across Europe. In 2020-2021, the fund awarded 15+ grants, and in
2022, it awarded 35+ project grants in two selection rounds, providing crucial support to grassroots initiatives. This was followed by another round of 15+ grants in 2023, 20+ grants in 2024, 15+ grants in 2025, providing over half a million EUR for projects in 2022-2025.

Foundation ENAR's work extends beyond grantmaking. The foundation's four pillars of work - strengthening the anti-racism movement, building systemically inclusive societies, fostering thought leadership through Inclusion Think Tank, and addressing emerging issues - provide a comprehensive approach to combating racism and discrimination.