FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mónica Taher, People of Color Media Director
Phone: (323) 634-2025   Email: taher@glaad.org

World's Largest Spanish-language Network to Focus on Increasing Lesbian, Gay Media Images

LOS ANGELES, FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2005 - A historic meeting between gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists and Televisa, Spanish-language media's largest television network, in Mexico City on April 12 has set the stage for future collaboration, according to GLAAD People of Color Media Director Mónica Taher.

GLAAD, COMAC (Comité Orgullo México/Mexican Pride Committee) and Mexico City journalists met with Televisa executives in an effort to increase the number of fair, accurate and inclusive media representations of the LGBT community.

"About 80% of the programming that Spanish-speaking Latinos watch on Univision [the leading Spanish-language television network in the U.S.] is produced and comes from Televisa," Taher said. "Thanks to Televisa and Univision's relationship, we will be able to impact and influence the way Spanish-language media reports on and portrays the LGBT community in the United States and the entire Latin American region."

The Televisa gathering follows in the footsteps of meetings GLAAD conducted with Univision Network President and Chief Operating Officer Ray Rodríguez and other executives in 2004, as well as a media training with Univision staffers.

"Spanish-language media have often portrayed LGBT people in a sensationalistic and stereotyped manner," Taher said. "We are excited that our work with Televisa will allow us to inform and educate media professionals and will bring more fair, accurate and inclusive representations of our lives into U.S. and Latin American households at a time when those images-and the acceptance and understanding they help create-can help prevent hate-motivated violence."

Present at the meeting, along with Taher, were COMAC representatives Francisco Lagunes and Carina Guzmán and journalists Gabriela Granados and Antonio Medina, whose work focuses on sexuality issues. The group met with Televisa at the company's headquarters in Mexico City. Representing Televisa were General Programming Director Xavier Labrada, General Programming Film Coordinator Luis Terán Fernández, Planning and Programming Coordinator, Mauro Castillejos Oliveros and Programming and Content Coordinator Luis Ernesto Gadea Salinas.

Over the coming months, GLAAD and the Mexico City media monitoring group will conduct a media training for Televisa producers and reporters that will include LGBT terminology and provide ideas on how to showcase LGBT characters in a fair and accurate way. Another goal is for Televisa to provide more coverage of LGBT issues on its news magazine programs, especially on shows anchored by respected journalists Joaquín López Dóriga, Adela Micha and Carlos Loret de Mola.

"This is indeed a very special day," said Xavier Labrada at the meeting. "This is an important first step in what we hope will be a productive collaboration between Televisa and the LGBT community."

At the meeting, GLAAD also commended Televisa for its portrayal of a gay couple in "Clase 406," and on a segment from "Los Reporteros" about the transgender community-both GLAAD Media Award nominees-as well as other news segments with relevant LGBT inclusion.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.