LGBTQ+ Community Turning up the Heat on Political, Social Fronts

 As the LGBTQ+ community continues the fight to have key legislation passed in Congress, it also looks to continue to build influence and support for its social rights movement, according to Black News Channel (BNC) host Aisha Mills. 

BNC's Aisha Mills

BNC's Aisha Mills  (Image credit: BNC)

 Mills, who will host an as-yet-named  political-themed primetime news show for the 16 month-old African-American-targeted news channel, says that the community is closely watching developments surrounding the The Equality Act, which will make sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes in America. The legislation has passed in the House of Representatives but continues to languish in the Senate.

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“We have to guilt them all,” she said in a Pride TV Summit interview. “It’s so much politics… but what we can do on the outside is continue to put pressure and just guilt the handful of Republican politicians who don’t want it to move forward. The vast majority of people in America support LGBTQ equality fundamentally as it relates to basic dignity and rights.” 

Outside of Congress, Mills -- who served as the first African-American woman president of the Victory Fund LGBTQ political action group --says she is encouraged by the inroads the LGBTQ+ rights movement continues to make throughout society. She also dismissed criticism of the expanding acronyms such as LGBTQIA+ used to describe or define the community. 

Pride TV Summit

“We don’t need to try to distill down and create some singular uniformity in order to be a community and to reflect people,” she said. “Let’s name it all and claim it all because at the end of the day we identify ourselves for ourselves by ourselves and be respected in how we want to be acknowledged and addressed.”

BNC, which will air a June 22 Pride-themed special hosted by Mills, is currently in more than 52 million U.S. homes through distribution deals with Comcast (Xfinity), DirecTV, Charter Communications (Spectrum) and Dish Network. The network is also available through OTT services such as Roku TV, Tubi and Pluto TV.

Register here for the Pride TV Summit on Wednesday, June 23. Featured speakers will include Randy Rainbow, AMC Networks executive Blake Callaway and Black News Channel's Aisha Mills. Pride TV Leadership Awards recipients will include The CW.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.