AN INSTITUTE
OF CHANGE
THREE DECADES
OF CHANGE
GLAAD has learned a lot since its founding in 1985 about the media’s role in changing hearts and minds. GLAAD demonstrated not only media’s powerful influence—impacting how people treat others, how they vote, and their daily decisions—but our own authoritative potential to lead the conversation, reshape the narrative, and ultimately, change the culture.
Now it’s time to share that experience more widely, giving people the tools they need to break barriers, champion acceptance, and amplify media impact in today’s culture.
“We won’t settle for anything less than 100% acceptance.”
– SARAH KATE ELLIS, PRESIDENT & CEO, GLAAD
WHAT
WE DO
The GLAAD Media Institute enables people to build the core skills and techniques that effectuate positive cultural change. This is accomplished through three pillars:
TRAINING
Spokesperson and media engagement education for effective storytelling
CONSULTING
Serving industries, corporations, and organizations positioned to take a stand for justice
RESEARCH
Fielding studies, evaluating data, and developing metrics to strengthen our mission and drive action
IMPACT
A nationwide network of 20,000 LGBTQ and allied students, activists, and spokespeople who can move hearts and minds in national and local media markets
Accurate, inclusive stories and messages in media outlets that increase and enhance representation of LGBTQ people
More educated Hollywood film and TV show creators to produce compelling, entertaining LGBTQ characters that do not reinforce common stereotypes
Improved reporting and understanding of LGBTQ people and non-discrimination policies by national and local publications and media outlets
A database of research and resources including media guides on best practices, fair and accurate reporting, opposition materials, and responsibility indexes
ACTIVATE
NAVIGATE
AND INITIATE
SOCIAL CHANGE
Nothing is more powerful than the personal stories that humanize our community.
Moving hearts and minds involves so much more than just supporting social justice. It requires the skills to uncover, hone, and communicate your narrative. It demands a keen understanding of your audience and the complexities of today’s media machine. It calls for dedicated follow-up to ensure that your message goes the distance, stays on-target, and is being leveraged and amplified consistently across multiple media platforms.
Using the best practices, tools, and techniques we’ve perfected over the past 30 years, the GLAAD Media Institute turns education into armor for today’s culture war—transforming individuals into compelling storytellers, media-savvy navigators, and mighty ambassadors whose voices break through the noise and incite real change.
Confirmed Training
- May 22 – Virtual, Crafting Digital Narratives: Register Now
- May 31 – St. Petersburg, FL, Telling Your Story: Register Now
Training Coming Up
- June 18 – Grand Rapids, MI, Telling Your Story: Registration coming soon
Taught by GLAAD Media Institute Experts
CONSULTING:
WE MEAN
BUSINESS
Using the best practices, tools, and techniques we’ve perfected over the past 30 years, the GLAAD Media Institute turns education into armor for today’s culture war—transforming individuals into compelling storytellers, media-savvy navigators, and mighty ambassadors whose voices break through the noise and incite real change.
Advising
We work with businesses on how to make smart, researched decisions before launching new products, services, and marketing campaigns.
Coaching
We train corporate spokespeople to use best practices on message-making and narrative development.
Behind-the-Scenes
We work with the television and film industries to ensure casting reflects the new realities of this generation, and that LGBTQ character presence is authentic.
Training
We train newsrooms and journalists on appropriate current terminology, and how to report on critical issues including hate crimes, nondiscrimination laws, marriage equality, and HIV.
RESEARCH
You can’t move what you can’t measure.
The more we know and understand about the state of acceptance, the more effectively GLAAD can fulfill its mission.
GLAAD currently publishes several reports yearly. Since 2014, we’ve partnered with the Harris Poll to track nationwide sentiments and comfortability surrounding the LGBTQ community, sharing the results in the Accelerating Acceptance report. Other key resources include the Where We Are on TV report analyzing diversity across broadcast and cable networks and streaming services, and the GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index (SRI), a road map toward increasing fair, accurate, and inclusive LGBTQ representation in film.
As the GLAAD Media Institute builds a new network of ambassadors nationwide, our ability to collect data at a granular level will improve. With an expanded, enhancedability to field custom research that best meets the needs of our clients and audience, our goal is to create a more robust, proactive research arm that can undergird and inform more impactful work across communities…and beyond.
An 11-page guide available in both English and Spanish to help writers, producers and network and studio leaders find a way forward toward creating stories that are funny or dramatic, complex and compelling, totally binge-worthy and also LGBTQ inclusive.
The second annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI), a report on LGBTQ user safety across five major social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. The 2022 SMSI introduces a Platform Scorecard developed by GLAAD in partnership with Ranking Digital Rights and Goodwin Simon Strategic Research. The Platform Scorecard utilizes…
Since 2015, GLAAD’s annual Accelerating Acceptance study has measured Americans’ attitudes and comfortability towards LGBTQ Americans, highlighting the progress we’ve made and the challenges that still need to be addressed in pursuit of full acceptance for the LGBTQ community. Since the study’s inception we have recorded a steady increase in…
The Where We Are on TV report analyzes the overall diversity of primetime scripted series regulars on broadcast networks and looks at the number of LGBTQ characters on cable networks and streaming services for the 2021-2022 TV season.Below are some of the most remarkable points GLAAD found in its research…
As the LGBTQ community continues to expand and become more visible, the 2021 Accelerating Acceptance study takes a deeper look at non-LGBTQ Americans’ familiarity, comfortability, and understanding of the LGBTQ experience.This year, the Accelerating Acceptance Study found that non-LGBTQ Americans are becoming more understanding that the LGBTQ community is not…
Fair, accurate, and inclusive news media coverage is vital to expanding public awareness and understanding of LGBTQ people. While recent decades have shown remarkable advancements in accurate reporting on issues affecting our lives and increasingly nuanced portrayals of the incredible diversity within LGBTQ communities, many reporters, editors, and producers continue to face challenges covering LGBTQ issues in a complex, sometimes rhetorically charged climate.
The U.S. South has the highest concentration of LGBTQ Americans of any region, in states without statewide laws protecting them from discrimination.
Measuring American attitudes toward HIV and the impact stigma has on people living with HIV
The HIV epidemic won’t end until we tackle the effects of stigma. We partnered with Gilead Sciences and Southern AIDS Coalition to better understand how much stigma still exists and its impact on those living with HIV. Despite making significant progress towards ending the epidemic, a majority of the public feels uncomfortable, uninformed, and concerned about HIV and people living with it. The State of HIV Stigma survey confirms that stigma and misinformation around HIV is widespread, and there is much work to be done to educate the public before we can end the epidemic once and for all.
The GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index (SRI) maps the quantity, quality and diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) characters in films released by eight major motion picture studios during the 2020 calendar year. GLAAD researched films released by Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, STX Films, United Artists Releasing, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros., as well as films released by four subsidiaries of these major studios. The report is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBTQ representation in film.
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