Fox and GLAAD Host Panel on LGBT Representations in Media
At a panel discussion on the Fox Studios Lot in Los Angeles last week, Fox talent and executives came together with senior leadership from GLAAD for a candid conversation about the representations of the LGBT community in the media. The panel was organized by GLAAD and FOX Audience Strategy, a cross-divisional group promoting diverse voices throughout 21st Century Fox entertainment businesses.
Hernan Lopez, FOX International Channels President and a GLAAD Board Member, spoke briefly before introducing GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. Ellis spoke about the great strides in LGBT representation on television that FOX has made in recent years. In fact, in the Network Responsibility Index that GLAAD released last year, FOX out-performed all other broadcast networks, with 42% of its primetime programming being LGBT-inclusive.
Ellis also participated in the panel discussion that included Taraji P. Henson and Jussie Smollett from the upcoming FOX series Empire, executive producer Margaret Nagle and actor/GLAAD spokesman Wilson Cruz from the upcoming Red Band Society, Glee and American Horror Story producer Dante Di Lorento, and advocate and former NFL player Wade Davis from the You Can Play Project, one of GLAAD’s partner organizations. The panel was moderated by FOX COO Joe Earley.
The talk was the latest installment of FOX Audience Strategy’s “Images: The Power to Inform, Influence, and Inspire” speaker series, designed to explore and highlight cultural trends, current events, and the people who are shifting perceptions and spurring creative innovation. The mandate to discuss images’ power to influence was not lost on the panel, the members of which spoke at length about the importance of empowering younger members of the LGBT community.
“Kids can now turn on their TV and be like, ‘Wow, I can be that,’” Davis said. “You can never become what you don’t see.”
For more information on the event, visit FOX Audience Strategy’s official website.
