GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, and Sony Music announced a partnership in March to amplify LGBTQ voices and representation in the music industry.
According to Variety, the partnership includes several initiatives to advance advocacy and inclusion at Sony and within the broader industry. The initiatives include the following:
GLAAD Media Institute will implement consultation and education for Sony Music Group, including LGBTQ-focused education sessions for Sony employees and leadership in an effort to help build greater awareness and competency around LGBTQ issues and people.
GLAAD will consult Sony on its campaigns and programs that seek to highlight contemporary LGBTQ people and/or issues.
Sony will be an official sponsor for the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles on April 2, and New York City on May 6.
Sony’s artists and songwriters nominated for the Outstand Music Artist award include: Brockhampton, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine (RCA Records/Question Everything), Kaytranada, Intimated (RCA Records), Lil Nas X, Montero (Columbia Records, Sony Music Publishing) and Arlo Parks, Collapsed in Sunbeams (Sony Music Publishing).
GLAAD and Sony will launch “Icons,” a three-part interview series that will bring together LGBTQ musicians, songwriters and producers across generations for discussion about LGBTQ inclusion in music, history of and the future of the industry.
“Over the past several years, many LGBTQ artists have made major strides within the music industry, but there is still significant room to improve LGBTQ inclusion, representation, and awareness at all levels,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD president and CEO. “Sony Music Group continues to be an incredible leader for diversity, equity, and inclusion in music, and we’re grateful to partner with them to both amplify diverse LGBTQ voices and establish greater pathways to grow LGBTQ inclusion within the industry at large.”
Charlie Sprinkman traveled to 42 of the 50 states for work as a representative of an organic beverage company in 2019 and kept Googling “queer hangouts here” when he would arrive in a new town. But he would often come up empty.
“I couldn’t find a resource for it,” Sprinkman, 25, said of a centralized directory of LGBTQ-owned businesses.
Charlie Sprinkman, creator of Everywhere Is Queer.Katie Hope / The Wild Within Us
Then, in the summer of 2021, he was a counselor at a queer leadership camp for 12- to 18-year-olds outside Los Angeles, and he said being surrounded by 100 LGBTQ people for 11 days was “euphoric.”
“I was like, ‘How do I create this space?’ Maybe not as grand as a camp, but like a space where people can feel this energy and not be judged for who they are,” said Sprinkman, who currently lives in Bend, Oregon, and works in customer service.
On the long drive back from the camp to his then-home in Colorado, Sprinkman said the phrase “Everywhere is queer” came to his mind. A few months later, in January of this year, it became the name of his LLC.
Everywhere Is Queer consists of both a website that houses a worldwide map of LGBTQ-owned businesses and an Instagram page that shines a spotlight on some of these companies. Three months after the launch, the map has more than 500 businesses listed, and the Instagram page has nearly 5,000 followers.
The Everywhere Is Queer map.Everywhere Is Queer / Google maps
Sprinkman said the project is personal for him, not just as a queer traveler but as someone who didn’t know of any LGBTQ-friendly spaces in his small suburban hometown about 30 miles west of Milwaukee.
“I didn’t have any out cousins, aunts, uncles, anyone as like an influence, so I didn’t really have a space as a child to find queer spaces around my hometown,” he said. “As I was building Everywhere Is Queer, I was thinking about youth, my hometown, trying to find and build spaces for them to just, even if they’re not out, just sit in a queer-owned coffee shop and just see queer people. You know, that subconscious layer of just like seeing queer people is what I hope Everywhere Is Queer will provide for so many.”
Charlotte Tegen
So far, Sprinkman said most of the LGBTQ-owned businesses on the map are concentrated in the U.S., and that there are only four states that don’t have an LGBTQ-owned business listed yet. He said there are also businesses listed in Germany, Spain, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica and Mexico.
One business owner listed on the map said she has seen more queer people come into her restaurants. Mel McMillan is the owner of Sammich in Oregon, which sells sandwiches made with house-smoked meats. Both of her Sammich locations, in Portland and Ashland, are listed on the map, as is her food truck, also in Portland.
“If you Google ‘lesbian meat maker,’ you’ll get a real touch of what’s going on with me,” McMillan said. (It’s true: An article about her is the first thing that comes up in the search results for that phrase.)
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McMillan, 39, said that one of the things she loves about Everywhere Is Queer is that it’s bringing together queer people from different generations.
Last month, Sprinkman and McMillan invited about 20 people to Sammich’s Portland location.
“The first thing that I thought was so cool about this was it’s bridging the gap between older queers and younger queers,” McMillan said. “That was really cool, because there were 20-somethings and 40-somethings, and there’s not even a place really for that either.”
Sprinkman said he’s also building a job board that allows businesses that are on the map to share job opportunities.
“I also have been searching for a queer-owned business job board, and I cannot find one, so we’re building one,” he said.
In the future, he said, he hopes to build an app to house the map and travel around to visit many of the LGBTQ-owned places listed.
“I would love to hit the road and visit and really hear the authentic stories of these queer-owned businesses,” he said, adding that “uplifting” the voices of queer business owners is a dream of his.
He said he also hopes that it helps LGBTQ travelers feel safer — and some have told him that it already has. He’s received hundreds of messages from people who have thanked him for filling a void.
States across the U.S. have a variety of laws regarding whether businesses can refuse service to LGBTQ people. Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., have laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations, such as businesses, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank. Eight states interpret their laws to protect LGBTQ people or provide partial protection. The remaining 21 states and five territories don’t provide any protection based on LGBTQ status.
From left, Mel McMillan, Charlie Sprinkman and the owners of catering company Two Spoons PDX, Laura Taki and Rachel Arenas.Charlie Sprinkman
As of this month, the map has been viewed more than 100,000 times, and Sprinkman doesn’t make any money off it.
“I’m building this just out of my own little queer heart,” he said.
He hopes that the map can ultimately just help people find the spaces that allow them to be themselves.
“I hope that a queer-owned business that was maybe unknown before can provide a space and a little bit more confidence, less judgment for anyone that’s struggling with figuring out their most authentic self,” Sprinkman said. “We’re always constantly on a journey, all of us.”
God bless Curtis Ingraham, Laura Ingraham‘s gay older brother.
After the Fox News propagandist did a segment on her show in which she cited a Breitbart article that accused schools of grooming preschoolers to be LGBTQ, Curtis took to Twitter to slam his baby sister for being a “Putin-loving monster.”
“This is rich coming from my Putin-loving sister who seems okay with children being killed in Ukraine,” he tweeted this morning, along with a clip from the segment, which aired last week. “Looks like she has a new trope in hand to further rile and anger her followers. What a monster!”
This isn’t the first time Curtis has put his homophobic sibling on blast. Last month, he took to Twitter to criticize a segment she did about Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, during which she claimed schools wanted to “sexually brainwash” other people’s children.
“My sister has the credibility of a tabloid,” he tweeted. “Spins like this reveal her deep-seated anger, desperation and complete ignorance of what is actually going on in education today.”
In the past, Curtis has also called Laura “nauseating” and suggested she is soulless. Speaking to the Daily Beast in 2018, he said, “She’s very smart, she’s well-spoken, but her emotional heart is just kind of dead.”
Weeks before The Walt Disney Co. took a stand against Florida’s contentious “Parental Rights in Education” law — which has been called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by its critics — the theme park operator and entertainment conglomerate donated $190,000 to support Florida Republicans.
The company gave $125,000 to the Republican Party of Florida and $65,000 to a committee that helps elect GOP state senators, led by incoming state Senate President Kathleen Passidomo. All the donations, which were disclosed in new campaign filings Monday, arrived as the state legislative session was getting underway in January.
Disney last month announced it would pause making campaign donations in Florida amid a backlash over its jumbled response to the legislation.
The Human Rights Campaign’s TikTok account was suspended for two days after it posted in support of another TikTok user’s pro-LGBTQ+ video.
On Monday, the LGBTQ+ rights group wrote on Twitter explaining it had been suspended for a couple of days last week after it commented on a video protesting Florida’s “don’t say gay” law. The video in question showed a teenager driving past a sign welcoming people to the state while they yelled “gay!”
On Monday, the LGBTQ+ rights group wrote on Twitter explaining it had been suspended for a couple of days last week after it commented on a video protesting Florida’s “don’t say gay” law. The video in question showed a teenager driving past a sign welcoming people to the state while they yelled “gay!”
HRC posted “GAY” with hearts in yellow and blue, the organization’s colors. The comment received 2000 likes before it was taken down and reported by other TikTok users, according to HRC. The group’s account was suspended on April 3 and the group was notified on April 4. HRC had initially been told that its account would be suspended until April 10, however, they were able to appeal.
“What message does it send to young people when we comment or post LGBTQ+ content and it’s deemed inappropriate and a violation of community guidelines?,” Ty Cobb, senior director of strategic initiatives at HRC, told The Advocate in a statement. “We’re fighting a battle for our lives. Elected officials are trying to censor our speech and restrict our access to healthcare and equal opportunity. Our need to communicate to our community and allies is more important than ever right now. Having our TikTok account suspended for two days means our ability to post educational, affirming content was restricted, which is nothing short of devastating.”
TikTok has a history of blocking LGBTQ+ content. In 2020, the company even apologized for censoring it. The apology followed a report released by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute indicating that terms like “gay,” “lesbian,” and “transgender” were restricted in several languages for global users wherever they were.
In an email to The Advocate, a TikTok spokesperson explained the company took action immediately after it knew of the issue with HRC.
“We restored the comment as soon as we were made aware of this error and will continue to provide ongoing training to help our moderators make consistent and accurate decisions,” the spokesperson for the company said. “We are proud that LGBTQ+ community members choose to create and share on TikTok, and our policies seek to protect and empower these voices on our platform.”
Former staffers of animation studio Blue Sky have claimed they were pressured by Disney into censoring an LGBT+ scene from the movie adaptation of Nimona.
Nimona was originally published as a webcomic by ND Stevenson – the trans writer, cartoonist and animation producer behind acclaimed projects like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Lumberjanes.
The fantasy comic about a shape-shifter named Nimona was eventually published as a graphic novel by HarperCollins and won an Eisner award in 2016. Nimona was picked up by Disney-acquired Blue Sky and was set to become a film before Disney closed the animation studio in 2021.
Three ex-Blue Sky workers told Business Insiderthat Disney didn’t fully approve of the film because it contained LGBT+ characters and themes.
The anonymous staffers said Disney executives particularly pushed back against one queer scene featuring a same-sex kiss in the movie during a meeting in mid-2020 between leadership teams.
The same-sex kiss in the movie would have been between villain Lord Ballister Blackheart and the supposedly heroic Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, who have a romantic relationship in the comic.
Blue Sky’s leadership apparently “felt enough pressure” on them to remove the kiss from further pitch presentations to Disney, according to the workers.
But the sources told Insider that the animation studio apparently hoped to ultimately include the kiss in the final film.
Disney did not respond to Business Insider‘s request for comment on the allegations. PinkNews has also contacted Disney for comment.
The news comes after a group of LGBT+ Pixar staff accused Disney of cutting “nearly every moment of overtly gay affection” from their projects. The accusation, which was released in an open letter, claimed that animators were “being barred from creating” LGBT+ content by Disney despite fierce protests from “both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar”.
The letter called out the Disney’s delayed response to Florida’s reviled ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which would ban classroom discussion about LGBT+ identities in the state’s primary schools.
The three ex-Blue Sky members said that Nimona experience similar pressure from Disney’s top leaders and ultimately caused a rift in the formerly “tight-knit” workplace.
The workers told Insider that omitting the same-sex kiss caused “confusion” within the studio, which they described as akin to a “family”. One staffer said it “caused a weird atmosphere” at Blue Sky, especially among LGBT+ workers, that was completely different from his experience at the company.
Another worker said the group had come forward to not only highlight the need for “more queer stories” but to also “call out how nefarious it is when you don’t tell queer stories”.
“When the biggest entertainment company in the world creates content for children and systematically censors queer content, they are pushing queer children to dark places,” the worker said.
The third former worker called Nimona a film that they truly “believed in” and “loved”, and they “thought people needed to see” the movie.
Nimona was planned to be released in January 2022. Several Blue Sky employees told BuzzFeed Newslast year that the film was about 75 per cent complete – with only a couple more months of work left to finish the movie – when the studios were closed.
One of the former workers said they “personally didn’t see the support from Disney” while they worked on Nimona. They added that they didn’t think Disney had a “great track record of making queer-inclusive media”.
Twitter has refused to take down Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s hateful tweet deliberately misgendering Dr Rachel Levine as it’s within the ‘public interest’.
On Thursday, the Texas attorney general decided to continue his anti-trans campaign by intentionally misgendering the nation’s only openly trans four-star admiral in a cruel statement on Twitter.
Despite immense backlash on social media, Twitter decided to let the tweet remain up despite it breaking the social media platform’s rules about hateful conduct and misgendering trans individuals.
Twitter posted an update on Ken Paxton’s tweet, acknowledging that it violates the website’s rules but would remain accessible because it “may be in the public’s interest”.
“As is standard with this notice, engagements with the tweet will be limited,” a spokesperson told PinkNews. “People will be able to quote the tweet, but will not be able to like, reply or retweet it.”
According to Twitter, an exception for having a tweet removed does require the account to be verified; have more than 100,000 followers; violate one or more rules; and represent a “current or potential member” of a legislative body.
The website states that it is “more likely to remove” a tweet if it includes a “declarative call to action that could harm a specific individual or group”. It will also remove tweets that “shares information or engages in behaviour that could directly interfere with an individual’s exercise of their fundamental rights”.
The outlet named the top Biden official as one of its “Women of the Year” for her trailblazing work and role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of her interview for the accolade, the US assistant secretary for health sent a beautiful message of acceptance to trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming Americans.
“I think you have to be true to yourself, and I think that you have to be who you are,” Dr Levine said.
“You have tremendous worth just for who you are, no matter who you love, no matter who you are, no matter what your gender identity, sexual orientation or anything else, and to be, be true to that. And then everything else will follow.”
Walt Disney Co. employees at corporate locations across the U.S. plan to get up from their desks and head to the exits Tuesday to protest CEO Bob Chapek’s response to Florida legislation that LGBTQ advocates have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
LGBTQ workers and allies are expected to participate in a general walkout at office locations in California, Florida and elsewhere, a group of employees announced last week on a website that calls out Chapek by name.
In recent weeks, Chapek has come under intense internal criticism and public scrutiny for not having taken a more forceful stand against HB 1557, a bill that would prohibit instruction about “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through the third grade in Florida.
Chapek drew pointed criticism for saying in a companywide memoMarch 7 that the corporation can make the “biggest impact” by “creating a more inclusive world through the inspiring content we produce.”
The corporation’s position on the bill appeared to be especially galling to some of the tens of thousands of Disney employees in Florida, home to the sprawling Walt Disney World theme park and resort in Orlando.
Chapek, who ascended to the throne of the Magic Kingdom in 2020, apologized directly to employees in a letter released March 11.
“It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights. You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down,” Chapek said in the letter. “I am sorry.”
He also announced that the company would pause all donations to elected officials in Florida.
But the letter did not end the outcry.
LGBTQ employees started making plans for a series of protests during breaks, culminating in a general walkout Tuesday. They announced their plans on a website (whereischapek.com) and an Instagram account called disney_walkout.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/nFbqpav?_showcaption=true&app=1
“The recent statements and lack of action by TWDC [The Walt Disney Co.] leadership regarding the ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill have utterly failed to match the magnitude of the threat to LGBTQIA+ safety represented by this legislation,” the employees said.
“We have been forced into an impossible and unsustainable position. We must now take action to convince TWDC to protect employees and their families in the face of such open and unapologetic bigotry.”
Advocates march at a rally at the Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Fla., spearheaded by advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation on March 3, 2022.Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Chapek tried to rectify the situation in a virtual town hall Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal, telling employees that he and other top executives were “determined to use this moment as a catalyst for more meaningful and lasting change.”
The Journal, citing people who attended the event, reported that Chapek said he and other senior leaders would go on a global listening tour of employees.
Google Play Store has removed a conversion therapy app developed by the Malaysian government that claimed to help LGBT+ people “return to the right path”.
Google has now pulled the controversial conversion therapy app from its store for violations against the digital giant’s policies. Under Google’s guidelines, apps cannot “attempt to deceive users” or “enable dishonest behaviour including but not limited to apps which are determined to be functionally impossible”.
Google toldthe Guardian: “Whenever an app is flagged to us, we investigate against our Play Store policies and if violations are found we take appropriate action to maintain a trusted experience for all.”
Hijrah Diri Homoseksualiti claimed in its description on the Google app store that it would offer “suggestions, ideas, explanations and interpretations” to help users “overcome the problem of homosexuality”.
JAKIM said in a follow-up tweet that the app allegedly contains an “eBook that refers to the true experience of a gay man who migrated during Ramadan to abandon homosexual behaviour”.
Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Malaysia researcher for Amnesty International, told the Guardian that conversion therapy is a “deeply discriminatory” and “harmful practice” that cause cause “long-lasting damage to those who are subject to it”.
“It has been criminalised in many countries,” Chhoa-Howard said. “We call on the Malaysian authorities to immediately abandon its use of Hijrah Diri, and instead ensure respect and protect LGBTI rights in the country.”
The conversion therapy app was hugely concerning for human rights activists as LGBT+ people in Malaysia face execution, torture and decades in prison for living their truth.
Malaysia’s penal code criminalised sex between same-sex partners, which it described as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”, with up to 20 years in prison and whipping.
According to Human Dignity Trust, there was a “serious crackdown” on the LGBT+ community after the new government came into power in 2018, resulting in a spike in arrests and assaults against LGBT+ people.
Human Rights Watch has denounced the Malaysian government for not acting on “discrimination against LGBT+ people”, adding it “remains pervasive and appears to be on the rise”.
The nonprofit warned that authorities have proposed a “range of changes to Sharia (Islamic law) regulations” that would harm the LGBT+ community including “harsher sentences for same-sex conduct and gender expression”.
Nur Sajat, a trans social media personality and businesswoman, made headlines after she fled Malaysia to escape persecution and charges of “insulting Islam”, which carries a prison sentence of up to three years.
Disney employees are staging a week of walkouts over CEO Bob Chapek’s response to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.
Disney has faced stiff criticism for its muddled response to the bill, which would ban the discussion of LGBT+ lives in classrooms. Disney initially refused to make a public statement and defended its political donations to Republicans who helped push the bill through before apologising and pausing donations.
Organising as the Disney Do Better group, LGBT+ people and allies working for the company are urging bosses to do more, including by ending all donations to lawmakers who supported the law indefinitely.
“By supporting the politicians who brought this legislation and not taking a public stand against it, Chapek and [The Walt Disney Compant] leadership have made it clear they are more than willing to sacrifice their employee’s health and wellness in service of the bottom line,” the group wrote in an open letter.
“We will stand for this anymore.”
From Tuesday (15 March) to Monday, employees will stage “break” walkouts from 3pm and 3:15pm, culminating in a full-day walkout next Tuesday.
Including more than 10,000 words worth of testimony from staff, organisers say they want to make it clear Disney has “utterly failed” in its response to the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, according to their website WhereIsChapek.com.
Organisers are demanding that Disney put pressure on Florida lawmakers by stopping all investment and construction in the state – where it employs more than 77,000 people – “until hateful legislation is repealed”.
It must also stop “any efforts to move employees to Florida office location” and guarantee that no employee will be fired as a result of denying relocation, the group demand.
Disney Do Better is also calling for the entertainment giant to improve LGBT+ representation in its content, with a dedicated brand to be created “focusing on LGBTQ+ creators and underrepresented voices”.
Disney is also being urged to reaffirm its committment to protecting and advocating for LGBT+ staff, and to “take responsibility for their inaction to protect the rights of LGBTQIA+ children and their families by making substantial contributions to The Trevor Project and other human rights advocacy groups”.
Employees taking part in the action work for Disney’s corporate offices, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Bento Box, Disney Television Animation the Disney Animation Studio, and more, according to Disney Do Better.
Disney demonstrators ‘ashamed’ to work as ‘hypocritical’ company
News that Disney had donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawmakers backing the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill was followed by silence, then clumsy statements that ignited outrage both within and outside of the company.
CEO Bob Chapek eventually apologised for the company’s response, saying he has temporarily paused all political donations and would donate $5 million to the Human Rights Campaign. The LGBT+ charity refused the donation until Disney takes “meaningful action” against the bill.
Chapek admitted that he “let [the company] down” in his response in a memo.
“I missed the mark in this case,” he wrote, “but am an ally you can count on.”
Disney CEO Bob Chapek. (Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
Previously, the CEO had suggested that telling “diverse stories” was far more impactful than a statement publicly denouncing the law. Corporate statements “do very little to change outcomes or minds”, he said.
Disney Do Better said this statement amounted to an attempt to “placate the LGBTQIA+ community with subpar representation”.
“You cannot fix this with educational seminars or token background characters — even organizations like [the Human Rights Campaign] refuse your money until action is taken.”
“Those statements have indicated that leadership still does not truly understand the impact this legislation is having not only on cast members in the state of Florida but on all members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the company and beyond”.
While it remains unclear exactly how many staff are taking part in the protests, the Disney Walkout Twitter has more than 1,200 followers.
Ahead of Tuesday’s first protest, the account shared statements from employees about why they are walking out.
“I am ashamed to work for a company that boasts about inclusivity and yet supports states and politicians that put lives, education, livelihoods and overall wellbeing of our LGBTQIA+ selves, siblings and families in jeopardy,” wrote one employee.
“Enough hypocrisy, it’s time for authenticity and transparency.”
Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill has been approved by both houses and is on the desk of governor Ron DeSantis, who has indicated his support.
