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Be sure to check out GLAAD's Blog each week for updates about our latest work to build support for LGBT equality through news, entertainment, and online media.
The New York Senate held a public forum on legislation barring so-called "ex-gay conversion therapy" for minors. Featured panelists included Mathew Shurka, Mordechai Levovitz, and Jacob Rudolph--young men with whom GLAAD has worked on numerous issues regarding youth, religion, and making their voices heard. Jacob is currently the PR & Communications Intern at GLAAD. Rudolph emphasized that the practice at hand is not "therapy," but child abuse. Hear more of his testimony here.
NYC Pride released its Pride Guide this week and among those featured was GLAAD's Vice President of Communications and Programs Rich Ferraro. The guide celebrates the 45th anniversary of the uprising at the Stonewall Inn, and looks at individuals who are using the social and political advances that the movement has gained since then to push LGBT equality forward today. Ferraro was pictured alongside Nathan Schaefer of the Empire State Pride Agenda, Jama Shelton of the True Colors Fund and Zachary Barnett of the Abzyme Research Foundation. Read more!
GLAAD consultant and Good As You creator Jeremy Hooper wrote a blog post about why Mitch and Cam's wedding on Modern Family is so important to the LGBT movement. He notes how Modern Family is a favorite, 
even among those who do not support LGBT equality. Mitch and Cam's wedding can inspire people to examine the root of their prejudice against LGBT people, and ask perhaps the most poignant question: "If I were a character in this episode's script, what would I look like as a nemesis who's fighting to stop these main characters from their major milestone?" Read more!
As news about Chelsea Manning's request for transition-related health services, and the fact that the Pentagon is considering moving Manning to another facility for treatment broke, GLAAD sent a reminder to the media on how best to report respecfully about transgender people. It included basics like names (Chelsea), pronouns (she/her), and referrals to experts in transgender issues, transgender people in the military, transgender people in the prison system, and legal experts. Read more!
Christopher Street West (CSW), the organization that plans Pride in Los Angeles, is prioritizing the "T" in LGBT this year. As part of the transgender-specifc programming leading up to LA Pride, CSW co-sponsored a panel on Transgender 101 for journalists, along with the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Society of Professional Journalists, Print Interactive Radio and Television Educational Society, and the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. GLAAD's Nick Adams moderated the panel which included local trans advocates Drian Juarez, RiKu Matsuda, and Jaye Johnson. Over 60 people attended the event, which included an in-depth discussion of how journalists can do a better job of covering transgender stories.
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