Accelerating Acceptance: Creating Content That Is Innovative, Entertaining And Inclusive Of The LGBTIQ* Community

This 90 minute roundtable – the first of its kind in Australia – aims to gather 30 high level representatives from Australia’s media and screen production industries to help improve the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) Australians through fair, accurate and inclusive representation in the media.

Featuring a panel of local media talent - including comedian Tom Ballard, writer Benjamin Law (The Family Law), journalist Monique Schafter (7:30), performer Jordan Raskopoulos (Axis of Awesome) and producer Charlotte Mars (Gayby Baby) - plus presentations from global LGBTIQ media advocacy organisation GLAAD*, roundtable participants will begin a vital conversation about how the media can use stories, content and language to help make Australia a place where everyone belongs. Issues to be discussed include:

• Best practices, and challenges, in delivering balanced and engaging LGBTIQ content
• How to avoid harmful tropes and the brand damaging social media backlash that can ensue
• How to access LGBTIQ-related counsel and support in relation to creating and marketing news and entertainment content

This event will provide some fascinating insights into how GLAAD works with filmmakers, TV producers, journalists, programmers and other media creatives to help ensure LGBTIQ people get a fair go on the page and screen. There’ll be movie and TV clips, engaging stories and some intriguing behind-the-scenes revelations from GLAAD’s work with media organisations in Hollywood, New York and Washington. There’ll also be a focus on local content and the Australian experience.

The roundtable will be followed by a cocktail reception where guests will have the opportunity to speak one-on-one with internationally influential GLAAD Directors Ray Bradford and Ross Murray, as well as network with other leading members of Australia’s media and screen production sectors.

Ray Bradford, GLAAD Director of Programs, Entertainment Media
Ray advocates for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTIQ community across all entertainment media platforms. By combatting problematic content, harmful tropes and instances of defamation, and by working with industry partners and allies to promote stories that accelerate acceptance of LGBTIQ lives, he consults with creators at all levels to produce quality and marketable content that also respects the LGBTIQ community through the characters and stories they create.

Ross Murray, GLAAD Director of Programs, Global and U.S. South
Ross works with individuals and organizations to craft a media strategy and tell their story effectively, and in a way that calls others to action. Ross has secured national media interest in stories that bring examples of LGBT equality across diverse communities across the globe. In 2014, he was named one of Mashable's "10 LGBT-Rights Activists to Follow on Twitter." Ross is also a founder and director of The Naming Project, a faith-based camp for LGBT youth and their allies.

*About GLAAD Global Voices Australia 2017
The ability of both news and entertainment media to shape attitudes and change culture gives it incredible power. This includes the power to help reduce the devastating impact that bias, discrimination and exclusion can have on the health and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people.

Helping to harness this power is the mission of US-based organisation GLAAD, a global leader in ensuring LGBTQI people are represented fairly, accurately, and inclusively in the media, thereby accelerating acceptance of the entire community. It does this by helping everyday people share their stories, holding the media accountable for the words and images they present, consulting with content creators to avoid harmful tropes and the social media backlash that ensues, and helping grassroots organisations communicate effectively.

To shine a light on the issue here in Australia, Screen NSW, cinema organisation Queer Screen and NSW LGBTIQ health organisation ACON have teamed up with Foxtel and the Australian Film TV and Radio School to bring out two of GLAAD’s leaders for a series of community forums and media industry events during Queer Screen’s 24th Mardi Gras Film Festival.