Wonder what we're up to at GLAAD? Be sure to check out GLAAD's Blog each week for updates about our latest work to build support for LGBT equality through news, entertainment and online media.
GLAAD's Spanish-Language Media Team helmed creation of two public service announcements, in both English and Spanish, that call for World Cup fans to help #StoptheSlurs. The PSAs star GLAAD's own Wilson Cruz and Laura Patalano (Mosquita y Mári) and were directed by Patricia Ovando (Ojos Que No Ven), who is the partner of Spanish-Language Media Strategist Janet Quezada. The PSAs are part of a larger campaign to call attention to anti-LGBT attitudes in soccer. Anti-LGBT slurs are sadly very common still in stadiums around the world. Some soccer teams, in England for example, have started campaigns to call attention to the problem, but much more needs to be done. Along with the guide, GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis released an open letter to FIFA, the international organization responsible for the World Cup, calling on the organization to do more to educate fans about the power of anti-LGBT attitudes. GLAAD created a World Cup Playbook, which was sent to media nationally and internationally, as well as advocates in Latin America, to ensure LGBT inclusion in the World Cup coverage. Check out the videos and share the graphics here.
GLAAD is supporting transgender violinist and vocalist Tona Brown in preparation for her groundbreaking concert at Carnegie Hall. Brown is an accomplished musician who has performed for President Obama, played La Principessa in the opera Suor Angelica, and has a reoccurring role on the new Netflix series, City Lightz. The concert is a part of Pride Month celebrations in New York City, and will be under the theme, "From Stonewall to Carnegie Hall." Read more.
GLAAD attended the 3rd Annual LGBT Sports Coalition summit in Portland last week, where advocates, athletes, and leagues came together to strategize how to move equality forward in sports. The summit, which drew more than 100 attendees, was hosted by Nike, which donated more than $200k in 2013 to end anti-LGBT bias in sports. Read more.
Katie Couric welcomed Laverne Cox, star of Orange is The New Black; Tiq Milan, GLAAD's Senior Media Strategist; and Chase Strangio, an attorney at the ACLU's LGBT and AIDS project to discuss a myriad of issues facing the transgender community. GLAAD worked with the Katie Couric Show on the episode, providing recent examples of transgender news, like the #JusticeForJane campaign and health care for transgender people. GLAAD also helped to craft the questions so producers would be respectful, engaging, and really show the breadth and diversity of the transgender community. Read more.
Laverne Cox's talents and her amazing Time magazine cover have done so much to spur much-needed discussions of transgender people and issues—in both English and Spanish-language media. GLAAD's Monica Trasandes was interviewed by El País, Spain's largest newspaper, by BBC Mundo and by very popular radio station K-Love in Los Angeles about trans issues today. The interviews on K-Love began as a result of a problematic situation. When discussing Laverne's photo on the cover of Time, one of the hosts asked if the photo was of a man in drag. Many transgender advocates were understandably upset and posted their thoughts on the station's Facebook page. Following outcry, producers contacted GLAAD immediately, asking for a training and offering to do interviews of on transgender advocates to help educate their listeners. Read more.
As part of GLAAD's ongoing efforts to amplify the voices of LGBT Latinos and allies, GLAAD's Spanish-Language Media team placed a terrific essay by Xesenia Maurice in Huffington Post's Voces. Xesenia writes about what it’s like to be the kid of a gay dad. This essay was also part of a great collaboration between GLAAD and COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) to ensure the voices of kids with LGBT parents are heard. Read more.
GLAAD's Spanish-language team media trained 30 Latino LGBT and allies people in Oregon including the director of one of the immigrant rights coalition groups, Causa. The training participants included media professionals from community radio stations, members of HIV/AIDS organizations, a pastor and a founder of a grassroots gay Latino organization called Amigos Siempre Amigos (Friends Always Friends.) GLAAD helped Causa in its efforts to strengthen its network as the organization works on coalition building around its current campaign to ensure that all Oregonians have access to driver's cards regardless of immigrant status, housing status, or gender identity. Immigrant rights staff were trained in how to talk about their support for the LGBT community and the intersecting issues. Read more.
GLAAD reached out to editors at the Wall Street Journal after the newspaper published a misleading op-ed from Dr. Paul McHugh, a well-known opponent of transgender healthcare. GLAAD addressed the inaccurate and outdated information cited in the op-ed, which claimed that "transgender surgery isn't the solution." The Wall Street Journal has offered to receive a letter to the editor in response. Read more.
This past week, GLAAD worked with Smith College graduate Avi Cummings and Barnard College graduate Dean Spade to develop an important op-ed piece about trans acceptance in women's colleges. The piece was successfully pitched and placed at TIME.com. Focusing on the case of Calliope Wong, a transgender woman of color whose application was refused by Smith College because she is transgender, GLAAD helped bring attention to the issue of trans women being denied acceptance to women's colleges. In some cases, women's colleges have refused to accept trans women because of gender markers on legal documentation. Read more.
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