In February, the LGBTQ+ community and its allies mourned the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary Oklahoma high school student who died after an attack in a girls’ bathroom. If it weren’t for Pittsburgh-based reporter Sue Kerr, the story would have stayed under the radar.
Kerr founded the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents blog back in 2005 and has been covering local and national LGBTQ+ news ever since. She was first to report on the details of Benedict’s death, which quickly became a national news story. Even though the last year has been one of the toughest in her life, Kerr is still doing the hard work to combine activism, journalism, storytelling, and memorializing the lives and deaths of trans victims of violence on her blog.
“We aren’t yet equal. I live in a state with no statewide nondiscrimination protections, an active DOMA law, and no codification around parental rights,” Kerr says. “Racial injustice, climate change, poverty, housing affordability, workplace rights, disability, and more are bound to our equality. Don’t take anything for granted and don’t leave anyone behind.” @pghlesbian
Mey Rude
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Mey Rude is a journalist and cultural critic who has been covering queer news for a decade. The transgender, Latina lesbian lives in Los Angeles with her fiancée.
Gabriella Angelina
Nick Adams
Meet one of the artists, disruptors, educators, groundbreakers, innovators, and storytellers who all helped make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ people.
Nick Adams, vice president of the GLAAD Media Institute, has been fighting for transgender equality since joining the organization in 1998. His role is to amplify the voices of trans people and help them be “trans in the public eye.”
He created the transgender section of GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide, setting industry standards for respectful and accurate reporting. Adams’s expertise has been incredibly valuable in major media moments, including Caitlyn Jenner’s coming-out story in 2015.
This year, Adams worked closely with Trevor Anderson, the co-writer and director of a new film, Before I Change My Mind, about a teen living in Alberta, Canada, whose gender is never clarified but is the driving force behind the story. Adams says the film “is a welcome and necessary antidote to the lies about trans youth being peddled by anti-trans politicians.”
As a transgender man himself, Adams says he’s passionate about continuing the fight against the small group of loud, fringe, anti-trans activists working to scare Hollywood into removing queer characters from the media. “I will make sure executives and creators know that the vast majority of their audiences expect and want to see our stories on screen,” he says. @glaad