http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/9220118.htm
Posted on Fri, Jul. 23, 2004

Univisión execs and gay group tackle issues

TV network executives agree to undergo sensitivity training in hopes of improving the often stereotypical depiction of gay people in the Spanish-language TV network's programming.
BY CHRISTINA HOAG

A team of Univisión Network executives will undergo training conducted by gay-rights activists in an effort to improve the portrayal of gay and lesbian people on Spanish-language television.

"We're actually very, very excited," said Mónica Taher, People-of-color media director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which has long deplored the stereotyping of gay people on Spanish-language TV.

"This is definitely the start of a long-standing relationship" between Univisión and the gay community.

Univisión, spokeswoman Stephanie Pillersdorf said, has "a long-standing commitment to and reputation for presenting programming with an objective and balanced discussion of issues, and meeting with GLAAD is consistent with our ongoing efforts in this area."

The move comes on the heels of a June 23 meeting in Miami between GLAAD and top executives of the network. That meeting had been requested by GLAAD since the March 25 airing of an episode of Univisión's Casos de Familia talk show that featured the theme of "curing" homosexuality through religion.

The show created a furor in the gay community, and Pizza Hut asked Univisión not to air its commercials during future editions of the program. When the meeting was finally arranged, Taher said, it was attended by President Ray Rodríguez and other high-level executives.

"That showed they really wanted to listen to what we had to say," she said. "They took our point."

Taher found it encouraging that network officials agreed to send a group of executives to a daylong GLAAD session on how to portray gay characters and themes sensitively. Those executives are to then present the material to Univisión's affiliates throughout the country, she said.

The session is scheduled for September in Los Angeles, where GLAAD and Univisión are both based. One key issue that GLAAD hopes to resolve, Taher said, is the common use in Spanish language media of derogatory names for gay people.