Tell me about it! I write some kind of LGBTQ-themed column three or four times a week, and very often I would like to make my illustrations more diverse, featuring queer people of color.

While that sounds like a really cool thing to do, let me tell you it’s a really really hard thing to do.

Forget the free stock photo services. All those pics are ridiculously overused, and there are only a tiny amount of them anyway.

I have a paid Adobe Stock account, and that’s not much better. It’s hard even with Adobe Stock to find decent photos of queer couples or groups that aren’t hopelessly stereotyped or distasteful. Queer people of color? Fuhgetaboutit.

I have a little more success on Flickr sometimes, but not a lot more success.

There’s probably a good article in there about how queer-phobia and racism can be explored through availability of photos in stock services.