Q Minnesota is published by Gateway Media LLC. Here’s who’s building it.
Q Minnesota is published by Gateway Media LLC, founded in 2026 by Andy Lien (she/her), editor-in-chief and publisher; Barry Leavitt (he/him), vice president of sales and events; Nell Gelhaus (she/her), vice president of digital content and marketing; and Brad Leventhal (he/him), investor and co-founder. As editor-in-chief, Andy holds full editorial authority over Q Minnesota’s coverage. Brad participates as an investor, holding a minority, non-managing stake in Gateway Media LLC.
Editor-in-Chief & Publisher, Co-Founder
Andy Lien is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Q Minnesota and a co-founder of Gateway Media LLC.
From 2011 to 2018, Lien ran the full editorial operation of Lavender Magazine, Minnesota’s biweekly LGBTQ+ publication and website. She shaped 180 issues, wrote more than 300 articles and led the team to 18 Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association awards, capped by Lavender’s recognition as the association’s 2016 Magazine of the Year.
After Lavender, she spent six years as editorial director of consumer publishing at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, shaping content on mental and behavioral health, wellness and recovery, with a particular focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. There, Lien was fortunate to work alongside a talented group of writers and editors, developing books, app content, educational material and a podcast — “Recovery Road.”
Across her career, Lien has built a reputation for connecting with compassion — pulling together ideas, people and communities, and linking them to the systems meant to serve them. That instinct, honed through various industries and methods, has prepared her to guide both the content and the people of Q Minnesota, for a community that deserves nothing less.
Lien holds a degree in communications and women’s, gender and sexuality studies from Macalester College. She lives in rural Stillwater in a multigenerational household, including a fluffy dog named Griffin, and is also fledgling ceramicist. She is the founder of Marsh Press and her writing can be found at remappingmyself.substack.com.
Email Andy: andy.lien@qminnesota.com
VP, Sales & Events, Co-Founder
Barry Leavitt is the vice president of sales and events for Q Minnesota and a co-founder of Gateway Media LLC. From 1999 to 2026, Barry oversaw advertising sales, sponsorships and events for Lavender, an LGBTQ publication and website. Under his direction, Lavender’s sales helped make it one of the largest LGBTQ magazines in the country and its Pride issue was annually the largest Pride publication in the country. Barry also helped create numerous events for Lavender, each providing another opportunity to bring the community together.
“I’m excited to help build Q Minnesota into something the entire community reads with pride. We’re building Q Minnesota for our community because the community deserves to see itself clearly — not flattened into one story, but shown in all the ways it actually shows up.”
Barry has been involved in Minnesota’s LGBTQ community for more than 35 years, including two terms on the board of Quorum, the local LGBTQ chamber of commerce, one term on the board of Hope House, an adult foster care for people living with HIV/AIDS, and as executive director of the 1996 gay softball world series, the largest annually held LGBTQ sporting event in the country.
A transplant from Sharon, Massachusetts, Barry currently resides in Robbinsdale. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends, checking out the vibrant food scene, traveling, attending theater and sporting events.
Email Barry: barry.leavitt@qminnesota.com
VP, Digital Content & Marketing, Co-Founder
Nell Gelhaus is the vice president of digital content & marketing for Q Minnesota and a co-founder of Gateway Media LLC. Her first bylines were in this community. From 2014 to 2016, Gelhaus wrote and photographed for Lavender Magazine, where her column on sports and athletics in LGBTQ life, “Playing For The Other Team,” earned Silver Awards from the Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association in both 2014 and 2015. A third Silver went to her 2014 how-to feature, “How to Plan A Wedding (Without Getting a Divorce).”
For the past decade she has built the search, content and audience strategy that decides whether readers find a publication at all. Gelhaus is the founder of In-Haus Digital Marketing, an SEO and content strategy practice in Minnesota. At Best Buy she managed local SEO, leading organic search strategy for BestBuy.com and more than 2,000 store locations. At Polaris she led strategy, site architecture and content for the Polaris Adventures website through a full redesign.
“The stories our community wants told aren’t often the ones that get told. I want Q Minnesota to be where those stories live — and where anyone who goes looking finds themselves in it.”
Earlier, in Las Vegas, Gelhaus co-chaired communication and marketing for EQUAL, Caesars Entertainment’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group — work for which Caesars twice honored her with its Chairman’s Award. She also served as co-chair for diversity on the Human Rights Campaign’s Las Vegas steering committee, helping organize the city’s 2009 Transgender Day of Remembrance and build the Women’s Empowerment Network. QVegas named her one of its “32 People With Pride” in 2010.
In Minnesota, she has served on the board of Muchas Sonrisas, Inc. since 2010 and, since 2019, as webmaster for Anonymous Santa, a North Branch holiday gift program for families in need.
Gelhaus holds a bachelor’s degree in musical theatre performance from St. Mary’s University of Winona, and a master’s degree in music from Illinois State University. She lives in North Branch with her three sons, dog Shadow, and far too many chickens.
Email Nell: nell.gelhaus@qminnesota.com
Investor & Co-Founder
Brad Leventhal is an investor and co-founder of Gateway Media LLC. A local restaurateur and real estate developer, Leventhal has enthusiastically thrown his support behind Q Minnesota as an investor and business mind, finding it crucial for Minnesota’s LGBTQ+ community to have a trusted media source.
How we report, correct, and disclose conflicts.
Our standing commitment to covering the full breadth of Minnesota’s LGBTQ+ community.
General: info@qminnesota.com