A panel on lesbian media was part of the 10th LGBT Media Summit, which kicked off the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association convention in Chicago Aug. 21-24.
This year's convention title was "Breaking Barriers." According to NLGJA President Jen Christensen, the title reflects the daily work of NLGJA members. The annual event brings together journalists, news executives and communications professionals to build skills, network and develop discussions over LGBT issues within the media.
The panel for the Aug. 21 breakout session "The Future of Lesbian Media," featured Windy City Times Publisher and LGBT Media Summit Co-Chair Tracy Baim, After Ellen Managing Editor Trish Bendix and Sarah Toce, founder and publisher of Seattle's only lesbian-fronted media, The Seattle Lesbian. Initially scheduled to be moderator and unable to attend was Diane Anderson-Minshall, editor-in-chief of HIV Plus magazine, The Advocate's editor-at-large and Media Summit Co-Chair.
"I'm always on LGBT panels as the lesbian," said Bendix. "We never have a panel that's just lesbians. We never have an all-female panel that's just talking about these things. It's really nice to have that opportunity here. I thought it was great because we're all from such different backgrounds and publications and I've been reading Tracy's work for a long time, and I met Sarah years ago. I love that everybody here works in the same arena, so we can say things and they'll know exactly what we mean."
The panel explored the history of lesbians in the LGBT and lesbian-specific media and addressed the visibility and presence of lesbians in today's media. Using personal perspectives and experiences, each panelist shared thoughts on the topic.
"We're a small but mighty community, so we just need to make sure that we're expanding," said Bendix. "It's always good to have a lesbian journalist's perspective of things. No matter how straight that subject may seem, I think we need our voices to be heard on those subjects."
The panel covered a variety of topics, forming an organic conversation during the ending Q&A session. Where lesbians stand in journalism and how they are perceived in some cases was one of the topics. They also spoke about the decision-making process about when and where a story should run in their publications, covering controversy and supporting content, the resources used in finding and covering stories, the necessity of having a diverse staff and freelancers to pitch and write articles, the inclusion of all groups when delivering news, and funding to keep LGBT media expanding.
"I always think 50 years from now, what's the historical nature of this story," said Baim. "Is it that important?"
Fostering LGBT media, Baim expressed, does not just come from LGBT-specific sources.
"We have to be much more creative in how we do this work," said Baim. "For the lesbian aspect of it we need to be even more creative. I still believe there's a huge need for this kind of information that is run by and for us. The mainstream media is much better, but if you look at the mainstream media they're also dying. In fact there's almost more need for LGBT media to serve all sorts of populations because the mainstream media budgets are so shrinking that all the reporters are going to become generalists and therefore their gay beat, their crime beat, their school beat all of that are going to also shrink."
The workshop attendees were journalists of different ages and races, from various media outlets. Although "lesbian" was in the program title, men were also present.
"The fact that there were so many people and there were men, too that actually was really encouraging," said Toce of the 18 who attended the workshop. "We cover the stories that matter to the people in our community—the entire community—not just one part of the community. So, if something's happening to our gay brothers or trans sisters then we cover it because it affects us all."
"Hopefully they go back to their work and say, 'we should probably be including more women, we should be including more lesbians,'" said Bendix of the journalists in the room.
Among the wide-array of topics covered, the panel emphasized innovation and encouraged people to use their own experiences and interests to pitch ideas.
"For god sakes, please, if you have an idea and no one has done it yet, don't sit there and say, 'why hasn't any one done that yet?'" said Toce. "Go do it! Ideas are good and go for it. We have to light a flame under the generation after us and the generation after that to kind of keep reinventing everything because you can't just expect it's going to go on forever."
"The thing that I really want to get out there to people who are working in our media is that if you don't see a story, you should write it, or get it out there, or pitch it," said Bendix. "If it's not up, its not because we ignore it or don't want it, it's just that I might not know something you might know about. I would love to share that. I want a different perspective from mine. I love having other people write and contribute."
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