ONE THEME.
SEVEN SOULS.
A WordPress theme for LGBTQIA2S+ media with seven switchable aesthetic styles — from anarchist punk to cottagecore queer. Let your readers choose their own aesthetic.
SEVEN AESTHETICS
Every visitor can choose the style that speaks to them. Their choice is remembered for a year.
Anarchist
WCAG AABlack & Red. DIY Punk Zine.
Distressed textures, propaganda-poster typography, and raw red-on-black energy. For the radicals who refuse to be quiet.
Goth
WCAG AADark Academia. Ornate Victorian.
Crimson and deep purple on near-black. Ornate Victorian borders, gothic serif type, and the atmosphere of a candlelit library.
Witchy
WCAG AAMystical. Tarot. Moon Phases.
Deep indigo and forest green with gold accents. Celestial symbols, tarot-card borders, and the warm glow of amber candlelight.
Pastel Rainbow Goth
WCAG AAKawaii Meets Gothic. Cotton Candy on Black.
Soft pastels — baby pink, lavender, mint — floating on a deep dark base. Animated rainbow gradients, lace overlays, and dreamy sparkles.
Cyberpunk Queer
WCAG AANeon Glitch. Tech Noir. Digital Resistance.
Electric magenta and cyan on near-black. Scanline overlays, glitch animations, terminal typography, and the pulse of a queer digital future.
Cottagecore Queer
WCAG AASage Greens. Warm Cream. Cozy Nature.
The only light-mode style. Warm cream and sage green with botanical accents, pressed-flower textures, and the cozy warmth of a queer pastoral retreat.
Riot Grrrl
WCAG AAHot Pink & Black. Feminist Punk.
Unapologetic hot pink on near-black. Cut-and-paste zine collage, hard offset shadows, safety pin motifs, and the fierce energy of feminist punk.
Add Your Own
Each style is a single CSS file. Drop a new one in css/themes/ and it appears in the switcher automatically.
BUILT FOR COMMUNITY
Everything a queer media publication needs, out of the box.
7 Aesthetic Styles
Switch between Anarchist, Goth, Witchy, Pastel Rainbow Goth, Cyberpunk, Cottagecore, and Riot Grrrl.
Cookie Persistence
Each visitor's style choice is remembered for a full year via browser cookies.
Keyboard Accessible
Full keyboard navigation on the style switcher — arrow keys, Escape, and ARIA labels.
Magazine Layout
Hero section, card grid, list view, sidebar, and a breaking news ticker.
Fully Responsive
Mobile-first design that works beautifully on every screen size.
WordPress 6.0+
Block Editor support, custom post types, 3 nav menus, and 3 widget areas.
WCAG 2.1 AA Compliant
Every style meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA contrast requirements. All text, links, and muted colours verified at ≥4.5:1 contrast ratio.
Learn moreLIVE PREVIEWS
Each style transforms the entire site
GET STARTED
Install in under 60 seconds.
Download ZIP
- 01 Download the latest release ZIP
- 02 Go to Appearance → Themes → Add New
- 03 Upload Theme → choose the ZIP
- 04 Activate and configure menus
Clone from Git
Clone directly into your WordPress themes directory:
git clone https://github.com/QnEZ/queerdispatch-manus.git
wp-content/themes/queerdispatchRequirements: WordPress 6.0+ · PHP 8.0+ · No additional plugins required
WCAG 2.1 AA
Every style in QueerDispatch meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA contrast requirements — verified across body text, links, and muted secondary text.
What is WCAG?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an internationally recognised standard published by the W3C. Level AA is the benchmark required by most accessibility laws, including the EU Web Accessibility Directive and Section 508 in the US.
The 4.5:1 Rule
WCAG AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between text and its background for normal-sized text, and 3:1 for large text (18pt+ or 14pt bold). This ensures text remains legible for people with low vision or colour blindness.
Why It Matters
Queer communities include a higher proportion of people with disabilities. Building accessible defaults — not just accessible options — means every reader can engage with your content regardless of visual ability, without needing to adjust settings.
CONTRAST RATIOS BY STYLE
| Style | Body Text | Links | Muted Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anarchist | 14.7:1✓ | 5.3:1✓ | 5.9:1✓ |
| Goth | 11.2:1✓ | 7.2:1✓ | 5.2:1✓ |
| Witchy | 10.8:1✓ | 9.1:1✓ | 5.8:1✓ |
| Pastel Rainbow Goth | 14.1:1✓ | 6.2:1✓ | 6.8:1✓ |
| Cyberpunk | 15.3:1✓ | 8.4:1✓ | 4.8:1✓ |
| Cottagecore | 11.4:1✓ | 5.8:1✓ | 5.1:1✓ |
| Riot Grrrl | 16.2:1✓ | 5.6:1✓ | 6.1:1✓ |
All ratios measured against each style's primary background colour. WCAG AA minimum: 4.5:1 for normal text.
How We Tested
Each colour pair was evaluated using the WCAG 2.1 relative luminance formula. We checked three categories per style:
- ▸ Body text on the primary background
- ▸ Inline link colour on the primary background
- ▸ Muted / secondary text (timestamps, metadata, captions)
Where colours failed the 4.5:1 threshold, they were adjusted to the nearest accessible value that preserved the style's aesthetic intent — for example, the Goth style's article links were shifted from dark crimson to bright rose, and Cottagecore's links from sage green to terracotta.
All fixes were shipped in v1.2.2 through v1.2.5 and are included in the current release.
Built with Manus AI
QueerDispatch is committed to transparency about how we use AI. This theme was developed in collaboration with Manus, an autonomous AI agent — and we believe our community deserves to know exactly how and why.
What Manus Built
Every line of code in this theme — the seven aesthetic styles, the tip submission system, the auto-updater, the accessibility fixes, and this documentation — was written by Manus AI across a collaborative development session with the QueerDispatch team.
Manus handled design decisions, CSS architecture, PHP backend logic, WCAG contrast auditing, GitHub release management, and all written documentation including the readme files and changelog.
What QueerDispatch Did
The QueerDispatch team directed the creative vision, made all editorial and design decisions, reviewed every output, reported bugs, and shaped the project's values — including the decision to prioritise WCAG AA accessibility and to build a Signal-based tip submission system.
We chose to use AI because it allowed a small volunteer team to build a production-quality theme that would otherwise have required months of developer time. The community benefit was the deciding factor.
Our AI Transparency Policy — Coming Soon
We are developing a full AI Transparency Policy for QueerDispatch that will cover how AI is used across our editorial workflow, what safeguards are in place, how AI-assisted content is labelled, and how our community can give feedback on our AI use. We believe LGBTQIA2S+ media has a particular responsibility to be honest about AI — both its possibilities and its limitations.
The policy will be published on queerdispatch.org and linked from this page when complete.
The root cause was that the upgrader_source_selection filter was bailing out when hook_extra['theme'] was not set — which happens in some WordPress configurations when the update is triggered from a custom admin notice link rather than the Themes page.
The filter now uses three detection layers to identify our theme regardless of how the update was triggered, and also clears any stale temp directory left behind by a previous failed update attempt.
To apply: install v1.3.2 manually this one time (download the ZIP from this release and upload via Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme). All future updates from v1.3.2 onwards will install correctly via Update Now.