INTHEFRAY Magazine’s articles have received national recognition,
including an award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists
Association (2006) and nominations from the National Press Photographers Association (2004) and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (2005, 2006, and 2007). INTHEFRAY has also been featured as a “Site to Watch” by The American Prospect’s Moving Ideas Network. To see the full list of organizations that have recognized INTHEFRAY’s work, click here.
Our mission
INTHEFRAY produces independent online journalism, commentary, and images that question, inform, and inspire conversations about identity and community.
Our vision
Whatever our place of birth, whatever our ways of life, we are all in this fray — this fight against ignorance and intolerance, this struggle to find meaning within a culture of anonymity and alienation.
INTHEFRAY is a nonprofit organization that seeks to transcend geographic, political, and social boundaries, to defend endangered liberties and rights, and to demand justice, transparency, and opportunity.
Our magazine tells the stories of today’s global village: the disparate and the dispossessed, the hopeful and the anxious, the dreamer and the warrior.
INTHEFRAY is about individuality — who we are, how we differ, what we have in common. It is about relationship — bridging those identities through education and personal connection. It is about action — uniting communities of diverse experiences to work toward causes and ideas greater than themselves.
Join us.
Our values
1. Individual liberty and self-realization. We seek a global society that enables all individuals to realize their potential and find personal fulfillment.
2. Community and interpersonal connection. Genuine liberty can exist only within a supportive and enriching community built on trust and honest communication.
3. Democracy and political engagement.
Political power needs to be decentralized and distributed as much as
possible. All citizens need the ability and responsibility to have
their voices heard on critical decisions affecting their lives.
4. Tolerance and social justice.
From diversity arises creativity and progress. For communities to live
in peace, each life must be valued equally. We value difference but
oppose discrimination. Only through understanding can we create the
conditions necessary for global citizenship.
5. Integrity.
Our actions must be guided by an ethic of individual and social
responsibility. Our journalism must be driven by a commitment to truth
and open-mindedness.
Issue areas
Our nonprofit organization aims to build a network to foster global citizenship. INTHEFRAY encourages public discussion and grassroots activism through its digital community, campaigns, events, media, and programs, bringing together individuals and organizations around the world in support of our shared values.
Our magazine covers issues of identity and community, including (but not limited to) the following areas:
1. Belief. Faith and fanaticism. Morality and hypocrisy. The diversity of the world's wisdom traditions, the perversity of blind ideology. The tension between the individual and community.
2. Body. Body image in a culture of hunger. Aesthetics and
anorexics. Mind and body. Life as seen from the wheelchair, as heard by
the Deaf, as experienced by the mentally ill.
3. Class. The rich, the poor, and those in the middle. Highbrow and lowbrow culture. The world's financial pecking order. Education as opportunity, education as action. Meritocracy versus egalitarianism. The global fight for goods.
4. Gender. Men and women, born or made? From feminine to masculine, feminism to machismo — the boundaries of conventional gender and the diversity of transgender identity.
5. Nationality. Patriots and expatriates, nationalists and
citizens of the world. Life at home, life in exile. The "foreigner" —
in our nation-states, in our local communities, in the world at large.
Caring for the Earth and its borderless ecosystems. Birthrights, land
rights, and human rights. Naturalization and assimilation. Immigrants,
emigrants, and refugees, real and imagined.
6. Race. The fights against racial hatred and injustice. The global mélange of cultures, the ongoing hostilities between ethnic groups. The study of whiteness, the preservation of indigenous traditions.
7. Sexuality. The spectrum of sexual orientation: straight, gay and lesbian, and those in the middle. The evolving nature of the erotic. New models for the family.
A brief history
INTHEFRAY launched on April 9, 2001. Cofounders Victor Tan Chen and Alexander T. Nguyen and an all-volunteer staff created the magazine with the goal of helping people better understand one another through an ongoing discussion of issues of identity and community. A rarity on the Web, INTHEFRAY has always featured original reporting, with first-hand accounts and exclusive interviews from around the world, as well as compelling personal essays by contributors from all walks of life. Over the years, the breadth and ambition of our work have grown. In 2006 alone, we published articles from 17 countries on five continents: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, East Timor, France, Guatemala, India, Jordan, Kenya, Mozambique, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, and various parts of the United States. The magazine now features a wide range of blogs in addition to its monthly issues. We hope you will visit often and join the debate.
What our readers are saying
INTHEFRAY describes itself as “an online magazine
devoted to issues of identity and community.” In light of the
remarkable economic and social changes — really upheavals — occurring
in the world today, that mission can only be called ambitious. The
magazine’s dedicated journalists set their sights on the frontlines
where identity and community are undergoing tremendous flux, climbing
into the trenches to give a voice to often invisible movers and
shakers, or just plain strugglers. At a time when nuanced analysis of
critical issues suffers in a toxic environment of ideological ranting
and corporate coziness, INTHEFRAY provides a forum for genuine informed
discussion on the Internet, which has assumed an increasingly
significant role in creating a space for dissent. It fulfills the
Founding Fathers’ dream, that an inquisitive and engaged journalism
must inform the citizens to defend and promote real democracy. I find
INTHEFRAY’s articles stimulating and provocative, and deserving of a
wide readership.
—William Julius Wilson, Harvard sociologist and National Medal of Science recipient
INTHEFRAY is the best for making the world as one village.
—Daniel Pereira, reader
Your journal has a courageous, vibrant life of its own and for this I commend you. The living soul of your journal has inspired and consoled many hearts and minds, perhaps more than you realize.
—Michigan reader and donor
HELP ITF! We're looking for more testimonials from readers about what INTHEFRAY means to them. If you can help us, please email us with any words you want to share. Please make sure to include your name and city.
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