Former Out and Advocate editor-in-chief takes the helm at LGBTQ+ youth arts organization

At a time when LGBTQ+ organizations are being forced to reckon with both political hostility and long-term sustainability, The Future Perfect Project has bet on journalism. The national arts initiative announced Wednesday that David Artavia, a veteran reporter with experience writing for Out and The Advocate, and one of the more recognizable and highly respected names in LGBTQ+ media over the past decade, will serve as its new executive director.

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FPP, founded in 2017 by Ryan Amador and Celeste Lecesne, writer of the Oscar-winning short film Trevor and co-founder of The Trevor Project, has spent years quietly building a creative infrastructure for LGBTQ+ young people at a moment when such spaces are becoming harder to defend and easier to defund. Artavia's mandate is to take that infrastructure national.

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"Creative expression is one of the most powerful ways young people make sense of themselves and the world around them," Artavia said in a press release. "At a time when LGBTQ+ youth are navigating increasing hostility and isolation, FPP is providing affirming creative spaces and meaningful mentorship that strengthens their resilience and sense of possibility."

Artavia comes to the role after a career spent inside the institutions that have long shaped how queer America sees itself. He was named co-editor-in-chief of The Advocate in February 2020, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic rewrote the rules of every newsroom in the country, and then moved to lead Out that September. He departed Pride Media in May 2021, before equalpride, which now owns the publications, purchased them in 2022. He spent the following four years as a senior reporter at Yahoo News.

GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate praised Artavia’s leadership. She said he "will help ensure that the next generation of queer creators not only have a voice, but the platforms and mentorship they need to share their stories on their own terms.” Longtime Out editor-in-chief Daniel Reynolds pointed to a quality that is harder to institutionalize than editorial vision. "He consistently makes space for voices that might otherwise go unheard," Reynolds said, "while helping document the cultural moments that define our community."

Lecesne, who remains at FPP as artistic director, explained in the press release what drew them to Artavia. "David's track record as a champion of LGBTQ+ issues, his lifelong dedication to the arts, his joyous approach to even the hard things, and his experience in the world of queer media made him the obvious choice for the job,” they said.