Four Things GLAAD Should Do To Restore Their Image Now

Despite the resignations of six board members today, Troup Coronado still currently sits on GLAAD’s 30-something member Board of Directors.

The problem? He’s also the anti-net neutrality AT&T lobbyist behind AT&T’s push to get LGBT organizations to support its proposed merger with T-Mobile. Plus, he helped get Bush’s ultra-conservative, anti-gay judicial appointees into federal courts.

Coronado currently sits on the boards of Equality California, the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation, and the Gay Men’s Chorus of LA, just to name a few. If GLAAD or any of these organizations want to redeem their standing in the community and not bow down to AT&T’s LGBT lobbying, they need to dump Coronado NOW.

And when you’re done, GLAAD, release a press statement about it, for crap’s sake.

Hey GLAAD’s Board of Directors! Have you heard of this new fad called “the Information Superhighway”?

No, it’s not a dance, sillies! It’s a series of tubes that connects home computer terminals to America OnLine chatrooms! It has become very popular with younger modem users and even several businesses that use its “electronic mail” feature.

But over the past several years web users have started asking the government to protect something called “Net Neutrality.” Net Neutrality would basically prevent telephone companies like AT&T from censoring the fuck out of the internet and charging web users a shitload for visiting sites that AT&T doesn’t like.

That would be a bad thing, especially if AT&T and other large telecoms decided to police content, block whatever threatens their political interests, and then charge insane amounts just for web users to view pro-LGBT content.

So why not get off your board off of their lazy dinosaur bones, go to your nearest word processor and draft up a statement emphatically supporting Net Neutrality? That way, your sponsors and members will know that you’ll fight for free speech online. You can even deliver your pro-Net Neutrality message using “electronic mail” or a “web log.”

Several of GLAAD’s younger members have constantly re-iterated one thing: the media latches onto GLAAD’s pop-culturey work more than they acknowledge GLAAD’s less known services.

Everyone knows about when GLAAD got on South Park, the WWE, and Kobe Bryant for all saying the word faggot.

But GLAAD’s Director of Public Relations Rich Ferraro says that 90 percent of the organization’s work happens below the radar.

Part of that 90 percent has to do with secret closed-door meetings that GLAAD holds with Hollywood movie/TV executives and screenwriters to ensure that they create quality queer characters instead of offensive stereotypes. Naturally, GLAAD doesn’t want to publicize these meetings so that their associates don’t get blasted by anti-gay groups.

But the other part of that 90 percent involves training LGBTs of color to speak as TV spokespersons, helping African-American and Spanish newspapers include more LGBT coverage, raising awareness about the lack of queer racial diversity on TV, keeping track of queer depictions on commercial and print media, working with LGBT athletes, sports franchises, and publications to offer positive queer support, and holding events that help fund a majority of their work.

A lot of people don’t know about GLAAD’s involvement with any of that because GLAAD hasn’t done a very good job publicizing that work with the same passion and sexiness of their pop-culture actions.

So forget press releases! How about creating sleek, sexy videos that show GLAAD in action and have program recipients talking about their changed outlook and community? How about running ads about GLAAD’s recent successes on the front page of their miserably cluttered website? (NOTE: they’ve promised a redesign soon)

Yeah, this all takes money, but restoring your image and highlighting your other good work are worth it.

Don’t let people think that all you do is hunt down people who say “the F-word.”