Media veteran Sarah Kate Ellis has been leading the advocacy organization GLAAD for more than seven years, focusing its efforts on building and fostering greater media acceptance of the growing LGBTQ+ community. Ellis, who will be honored at the June 23 B+C and Multichannel News Pride TV Summit, talked about the relevance and importance of this year’s Pride Month celebration, as well as the state of LGBTQ+ representation on television in an interview, an edited version of which appears below.

More on the Pride TV Summit: Pride TV Summit Hones in on the Business of Inclusion

B+C: Does this year’s Pride Month celebration take on greater significance given the cultural climate change the country has experienced over the past year? 

Sarah Kate Ellis: Absolutely. Two things are at play here. One is that for the LGBTQ community as a whole, community is a really important part of our identities, especially because for so long, we lived in the shadows. Our coming together in person was sorely missed last year, especially because so many of our youth live in unaccepting households. From a policy and political perspective, there have been over 250 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year in state legislatures across the United States — most of those are targeting trans and non-binary people. This year, we've seen 27 murders of transgender, non-binary people who are mostly Black and Latina, and we’re pacing to be the deadliest year yet for the community. With the Equality Act, which is the largest piece of legislation for our community ever, passed in the House but stalled in the Senate, I think it’s really important for us to use this month to build awareness and education about the Act and what it does to help protect our community. 

B+C: What role can the entertainment industry play in educating the public about the issues you’ve mentioned? 

SKE: TV and streaming content are empathy and education machines for our community. For instance, only 16% of Americans report knowing somebody who is transgender, so the rest of the country is learning about transgender people through media. Our annual report, Where We Are on TV, came out in January 2021, and we found that there was greater diversity of LGBTQ characters, but less characters overall. I'm really hopeful that [the decline] is likely due to COVID because a lot of productions were stopped, but a great example of how important content is for the community is FX’s Pose. This was a revolutionary show that focused on trans people of color for the most part and told their stories, but it also focused on HIV and AIDS in the ’80s. When this show shuts down this month, we will lose a significant number of trans characters on television, and we will then have zero characters living with HIV on scripted TV. 

That’s a lot of weight for one show to carry in terms of creating culture, education and empathy for our community. We need to see that spread out among other shows.

B+C How does the industry go about developing more shows like Pose that depict authentic LGTBQ+ characters and storylines on screen? 

SKE: Hollywood likes success — look at all the awards that Pose has received. Hulu’s Happiest Season is an LGTBQ holiday movie that broke all of their records for new subscribers during its first weekend viewing. So if you put the content out there, the audience will come and they will flock to it as long as it’s fair and accurate. I think that’s a big motivator to create programming that’s going to attract audiences and bring in new fan bases. I think the industry is moving in the right direction because it is showing more diverse characters. For so long, shows and films were scared to include LGBTQ characters mainly out of fear of backlash, and we’re way past that. If you look at the latest Gallup poll, 16% of 18 to 24 year olds in America identify as LGBT. So they want to see themselves and their lives reflected back to them. As content creators look to attract younger audiences, they're going to have to include LGBTQ people.

B+C: What is GLAAD doing to increase LGBTQ+ representation on screen? 

SKE: We approach it really from three different places. One is that we do our annual reports on the TV and streaming content providers and their content. We do the studio responsibility index on films and theaters. So we measure those. We have the GLAAD Media Institute where we work with these creators. We just launched a new project with Procter & Gamble called The Visibility Project. We know how important media representation is and, just like in television and film, advertising is pervasive. We know that if we can be in more ads that will grow acceptance for our community.

What we look to do is provide some measurements so that they have a benchmark that they could move forward from, as well as to hold them accountable, but also offer all our support and services to make sure that they are successful.

TechNet, a consortium of tech companies, has called on congressional leadership to ax a section of a Defense Department reauthorization bill (H.R.4909 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017) that they say would legally sanction discrimination against LGBT Americans.

Some Republicans have included a provision that would exempt religious organizations receiving government contracts, subcontracts, purchase orders or grants from gender discrimination protections.

In a letter to House and Senate Armed Services leadership, TechNet, whose members range from Comcast and WGBH Boston to Apple, Microsoft and Google, made their position clear.

“The technology industry is the nation’s most innovative sector precisely because it values and embraces a talented and diverse workforce," said TechNet President Linda Moore. "Unfortunately, Section 1094 undermines these values by placing prejudice and fear above inclusion and diversity, which is bad for our employees and bad for business.”

“To ensure that our nation’s economy remains robust and innovative, we must support the best and brightest people. 

While Section 1094 might intend to promote religious freedom and liberty, in reality it sanctions discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, which has no place in our country.”

TechNet says the provision, if it remains in the bill, would Nullify the President's executive order prohibiting gender or sexual orientation bias in federal contracting. 

The letter was sent to the members of a joint House-Senate conference of the Armed Services Committees working on the bill, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the committees.

The House and Senate passed different versions of the bill, which must be reconciled into one bill for final passage.

Comcast says it is donating $1.5 million in airtime to run PSA's promoting the 2016 LGBT Equality Forum (equality.com).

Comcast is the lead sponsor of the three-day event, which is held during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia--Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia.

The PSA is already airing across Comcast markets and will continue through the conference (the end of July).

The event includes legal and political panels, awards, and the dedication of two historic markers.

“We take great pride in our support of the LGBT community and of a diverse and inclusive workforce,” said David Cohen, senior Executive VP of Comcast as well as a special advisor to the Democratic National Convention (he is former top aide to former Philadelphia Democratic mayor (and later governor, Ed Rendell, who is chairing the 2016 Democratic convention. “Through the support of events like the Equality Forum, Comcast NBCUniversal continues to invest in creating a business culture where diverse perspectives and ideas help drive innovation.”

The LGBT Technology Partnership told the FCC it is "seriously concerned" about the FCC's set-top box proposal.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, with the votes of the two other Democratic commissioners, has proposed making MVPD set-top data available to third party device makers and app developers as a way to promote competition in navigation devices.

In comments to the FCC the partnership focused on the protecting the privacy of that data, and their concerns the proposal did not sufficiently do that.

The partnership said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is particularly vulnerable to breaches revealing their programming choices, citing possible discrimination, job losses, bullying, and physical harms and saying being outed involuntarily can have "catastrophic consequences."

"Allowing third parties to unilaterally decide how to bundle, promote, and exhibit 'niche' and minority content, such as content created by and for the LGBT community, while at the same time allowing these third parties to 'self-certify' their compliance with privacy rules, would put at risk consumers who have come to rely on these rules for the protection of their private data," it said.

It also says the proposal could result in diverse programmers, like those serving the LGBT community, losing control of how their content is presented.

The group suggested the FCC would be better off switching gears and adopt the other, app-based, proposal--backed by cable and other ISPs--and also offered up by FCC's Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC)

The partnership also echoed criticisms of edge providers' lack of diversity in employment and leadership which reduces the clarity of the lens through which privacy protections are viewed. "Historically, these companies have been bad actors with regards to protecting customer privacy and have only changed their privacy policies when they face litigation for said policies."

"In a digital world where privacy is already limited, why would we want to provide a loop hole for companies to further track our habits?," Chris Wood, executive director of the partnership, told Multichannel News, "especially when these companies have proved over time that they are willing to sacrifice our data and privacy for their profits. Furthermore, we only need to look at recent headlines in North Carolina, Mississippi or others to see that our community is too vulnerable have companies 'self-certify' they're doing the right thing. The FCC needs to fully consider the impact this decision could have on the LGBT community and other niche or minority communities for years to come."

The partnership is only the latest in a line of diversity advocates raising red flags about the impact on programmers and privacy.

Asked about the set-top proposal, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a C-SPAN interview this week that the FCC respects programming assets. He said the FCC did not want Google substituting commercials or putting windows around it, and that if the FCC proposal language needed adjusting, it could be fixed. "If that language isn't good enough, tell us how to fix it," he said.

Wheeler has also argued the proposal would be a boon to diversity by giving independent over-the-top content providers visibility via the new navigation devices that wed traditional and OTT content.

HBO distanced itself from star boxer Manny Pacquiao’s recent anti-gay comments, but said it will still distribute the fighter’s April 9 fight against Timothy Bradley Jr.

In a statement released yesterday, HBO labeled Pacquiao’s published statements last month saying that same-sex relationships are “worse than animals” as “insensitive, offensive and deplorable.” The network added that it has an "obligation" to distribute the April 9 Pacquiao-Bradley PPV bout – the third fight between the two fighters. Pacquaio has since apologized for his comments.

Pacquiao is one of the most successful fighters in PPV boxing history. His May 2015 fight against Floyd Mayweather is the most lucrative PPV event of all time, generating more than 4.4 million PPV buys and $400 million in PPV revenues. 

HBO's full statement is as follows: “Next month Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley Jr. are scheduled to meet in a Pay-Per-View bout.  We have an obligation to both fighters and, therefore, will proceed to produce and distribute that event.  However, we felt it important to leave no uncertainty about our position on Mr. Pacquiao's recent comments toward the LGBTQ community.  We consider them insensitive, offensive and deplorable.  HBO has been a proud home to many LGBTQ stories and couldn't approach this event without clearly voicing our opinion."

NEW YORK — It wasn’t high art, but as roasts go, the one for Vice Media founder and CEO Shane Smith during a fundraiser for the Center for Communications Nov. 18 briefly showed a different side of the notorious media bad boy, who was given the Center’s Frank Stanton Award for Excellence in Communication.

Stanton was president of CBS from 1946 to 1971, overseeing the network’s Golden Age for journalists like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. Roasts are notoriously di_ cult to do, and not every joke hit its mark — there were a lot about Smith’s weight and prodigious appetites: he reportedly spent $300,000 on a single dinner with friends in Las Vegas during the International CES in January.

But amid the Sex Pistols intro music (Smith’s favorite band) and the steady stream of F-bombs — even from so-called staid TV executives — former Viacom CEO and current Vice board member Tom Freston offered a peek at a side of Smith most don’t see.

Freston got one of the biggest laughs, reading a list of “poignant” late-night texts he supposedly received from Smith. Examples: “You calm down, you Minnesota dust climber!” and “Cross your balls, we’re going in!”

But Freston also read one that Smith sent to him on Nov. 13, while Freston, HBO chief Richard Plepler (also a presenter) and Time Warner Inc. chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes were having dinner in Paris (they were there for a U2 concert that was later canceled) mere blocks away from the terrorist attacks that night.

“Before we knew what was really going on, I heard a ping and I reached for my iPhone and read this message: ‘F**k dude, get out of there. Come home to me and be safe,’ ” Freston said. “That’s sort of Shane; he’s on all the time.”

— Mike Farrell

Comcast’s Alchin Shares a Coming Out Story at Film Screening

The LGBT community was out in force Nov. 23 for a special Washington, D.C., premiere screening of Comcast’s Focus Features film unit’s The Danish Girl, about Lili Elbe, the first recipient of sexual reassignment surgery.

In attendance were cast members and filmmakers, including director Tom Hooper and co-star Alicia Vikander. Star Eddie Redmayne, who plays Elbe and who won the Best Actor Oscar for Focus’s The Theory of Everything last year, was out of the country, but made apologies via video.

Also on hand at the Burke Theater at the U.S. Navy Memorial were Emmy winner Jeffrey Tambor and Bradley Whitford of Amazon Studios’s Transgender. Tambor also is familiar for a recent DirecTV ad campaign savaging large cable companies.

Introducing Hooper before the film was John Alchin, former co-chief financial officer of Comcast, who noted that the fact he is gay warranted a front-page story in a Philadelphia newspaper two decades ago. He said the reaction from Comcast’s Brian Roberts was, “good,” with him saying Alchin had made the company proud. Alchin said that when he told Brian’s father, Ralph, about his son’s comment, the late Comcast co-founder replied that he wasn’t surprised, as he had taught Brian everything he knew.

Alchin talked about the LGBT community’s progress toward “recognition, equality and inclusion.” But he suggested the fight continues, pointing to Houston, where an anti-discrimination ordinance was recently defeated.

“We still have lots more work to do,” Alchin said.

He also talked about Comcast’s “dedication to featuring diverse and independent voices on film and television” and pointed out that Comcast carries more than 160 independent networks.

Comcast has repeatedly been cited as among the best places to work for LGBT employees by the Human Rights Campaign.

— John Eggerton

The number of LGBT characters on broadcast and cable networks continues to increase, but transgender characters are virtually absent on primetime cable and broadcast network lineups, according to a new report from LGBT media advocacy group GLAAD.

The organization’s Where We Are On Tv report states that the number of LGBT characters on cable networks increased to 84 from 64, while recurring characters increased to 58 from 41, according to the survey. ABC Family and Showtime lead the pack with 18 regular or recurring characters, according to the survey.

ABC Family’s The Fosters featured the most inclusive cast with seven LGBT characters.

On the broadcast networks, LGBT characters represented 35 out of 881 series regular characters -- an increase from 32 reported last year, according to GLAAD.

The report also concluded that only three recurring transgender characters appear on cable networks during primetime hours, while none of the major broadcast networks feature such characters during the 8 to 11 p.m. hour.

Only seven transgender characters appear on series from OTT services such as Netflix and Hulu, according to GLAAD.

"Each of us lives at the intersection of many identities and it's important that television characters reflect the full diversity of the LGBT community," said Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO & President of GLAAD in a statement. "It is not enough to just include LGBT characters; those characters need to be portrayed with thought and care to accurately represent an often tokenized community."

From a diversity standpoint, nearly three-fourths of all LGBT characters represented on cable, broadcast and streaming services are white, according to the survey.

Overall racial diversity is increasing though, with 33% of regular characters on primetime scripted broadcast programming were people of color -- a six-point increase from last year, according to the survey. African-American characters made up 16% of all regular characters on television --the highest percentage since GLADD began compiling racial data 11 years ago. Of the 145 African-American characters counted, only 59 were female, according to the survey.

Racially diverse LGBT characters are notably lacking on all platforms with 71% (cable) and 73% (streaming services) of LGBT characters being white. 

The cable industry once again received strong grades for its LGBT-inclusive programming in the latest GLAAD “Where We Are on TV” report. Yet cable was somewhat overshadowed by its fast-rising over-the-top video competitors.

The GLAAD report, which looked at primetime programming from June 2013 to this May, said that primetime cable shows featured 64 regular lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters — up from 42 last season — compared to their broadcast brethren, with 32 LGBT characters.

ABC Family, HBO and MTV earned “excellent” grades for their LGBT-inclusive programming, according to GLAAD’s Network Responsibility Index. HBO had the most LGBT characters, with a total of 15 regular or recurring roles. Most of those images came from its drama series Looking, which offered the most “out” characters of any scripted series on television. ABC Family and Showtime followed with 13 characters each.

Other cable series that introduced LGBT characters this summer or will do so later this year include Please Like Me (Pivot), Matador (El Rey Network), Broad City (Comedy Central), Witches of East End (Lifetime) and Hit the Floor (VH1).

GLAAD praised cable but also gave major props to its online video-streaming competitors. Netflix dramedy Orange Is the New Black contained more LGBT characters than nearly any broadcast or cable series currently on air, according to GLAAD.

Netflix’s Hemlock Grove and Lilyhammer also featured lesbian, gay and bisexual characters, and the OTT service plans a new series, Grace and Frankie, to feature two bickering wives whose husbands fall in love with one another.

Hulu original series East Los High and Amazon Prime shows Alpha House and Transparent feature several LGBT characters.

“As [television networks] move forward with new programs and storylines, networks must also keep an eye towards diversity and strive to include significant transgender content comparable to those efforts being made by their online competitors, such as Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and Amazon’s Transparent,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said.

EPIX has announced the world premiere of To Russia With Love, which will be narrated by Golden Globe and Emmy award winner, Jane Lynch on October 29 at 8 p.m. ET.

The 90-minute documentary will examine human rights through LGBT athletes, including Billie Jean King, Greg Louganis, Jason Collins and Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Tewksbury. It will go into the next generation of athletes in the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia as well.

Athlete, Johnny Weir will be the commentator, allowing viewers to take a look into his world. The film will be shot throughout NYC, Calgary, Toronto, St. Petersburg and Moscow, while following athletes throughout their struggles with the media and Russia’s anti-gay laws.

Some Olympians include snowboarders Belle Brockhoff and Simona Meiler, speed skaters Anastasia Bucsis and Blake Skejellerup and many more.

To view clips from the film, visit EPIX here.