lgbt community

We've all got a lot to learn!

Advertising Week is being enlightened by a new subject this year: Gays & Lesbians, Know Them? The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and Publicis Groupe have joined forces to ask panelists this very important question with the hopes of changing hearts and minds and making the LGBT lifestyle more approachable in the media.

For 35 years, Elizabeth Winship penned the syndicated “Ask Beth” column, which appeared in dozens of newspapers around the country. When she died Sunday at 90 in her hometown of Roseville, Minnesota, more than few LGBT fans shed a tear. That’s because from 1963 to 1998, Winship’s “Ask Beth” was one of the few people offering real advice to teens — and that meant a lot of queer and questioning kids.

Openly bisexual singer/songwriter and top notch performer Lady Gaga has been an advocate for the LGBT community since her first single "Just Dance" pranced along the airwaves in 2008. Although there have been instances with hateful rhetoric present inside and outside of the concerts, the crowd in St. Louis proved more of a threat than originally anticipated. Lady Gaga took some time out of her crazy schedule before hopping onto the stage in her glittery, bandage and bubble-like costumes to warn her LGBT fans of the presence of hateful critics outside of the doors.

The Justice Department has decided that Federal prosecutors can enforce criminal provisions in the Violence Against Women Act in cases involving gay and lesbian relationships. David J. Barron, an Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department, confirmed that prosecutors can enforce the law in cases involving interstate stalking and domestic violence regardless of whether the victim or the defendant is a man or a woman.

A recent CBS News nationwide telephone poll found that 77 percent of Americans know someone close to them who is gay or lesbian and most view the lifestyle in a positive light. This number has skyrocketed since the last poll, taken in 1992, which had only 56 percent of the responders confirming that they have a member of the LGBT community in their inner circle. 

The MetLife Mature Market Institute and SAGE have teamed up to release a financial planning publication geared specifically to the LGBT community entitled, "Planning Tips for LGBT Individuals and Couples."

After spending seventeen years in the closet at Verizon, LOGO Executive Vice President and General Manager Lisa Sherman came out and helped build the first gay television network. Not only has Sherman experienced incredible personal growth, but she was a driving force behind a media platform that continues to increase LGBT visibility.