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Every voice is valid.

Every voice has a story.

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It's been probably within the last five years that there's been active focus on advertising with CIBC Community.

The representation of gay folks.

GLBT Q.

Folks.

It's a tricky job.

It's It's very difficult because everyone is different.

We're all complex people, and I think that without a more deliberate representation of people within the LGBT community, we risk being seen as thes kind of paper cutouts or these caricatures of personality without understanding the depth of the humanity for a brand.

In order to come off authentic, they need to be authentic, which means that they need to do their homework.

We started actually flipping through some of the ads as we were going through part of our LGBTQ history and started to see that there was some interesting themes that were coming out.

You start thinking this looks pretty suggestive, very so we're, um I imposing something that I'm seeing as somebody that's living in in, like, modern day on something that I'm looking at that was over 100 years ago or is this really suggestive?

It is suggestive.

Brent Miller, the global LGBTQ equality leader of PNG.

I think for me being part of a community that's been traditionally underrepresented, visibility is everything.

You know P and G's in Ohio based company.

I like that because it actually puts this kind of in the Heartland of the U.

S.

We wanted to talk thio those people in our own backyard because it's in that discovery process that you uncover some really, really incredible things.

Talking with the advertising historians really important because you begin to understand what a hidden world Uh, the LGBT Q Community was for such a long time.

So this particular illustrator, um, was known to most likely very, maybe 99% sure that he was gay.

I mean, some of these air from you know, like the 18 eighties, clearly coated.

Clearly, it's out there, but it's hidden like this is a time where if if you were, you know, gay, this would be a way that you could maybe express yourself because they're not ableto have a full identity in public because it's just not known or accepted or embraced.

What are the implications for the way people are presented in advertising today.

Who you choose to cast to put an ad has more consequences than you might think.

You can't be What you can't see.

You would see the stereotypes.

You would see the hairdresser or the floors.

Yeah, you'd see that.

That was it.

You'd be hard to hear the word.

And when you did, it was it was very, very negative.

You know, I have been together for it will be 39 years in November 12th of this this year.

This is our actual legal marriage certificate from Washington, D.

C.

Now it was nice toe.

It was nice to make it legal.

Yes, between my mother and my father.

My father was far more supportive.

My mother had a horrible time.

She called me up at work one day and said, You know, Joe, it was a terrible thing to say, but I'm sorry I ever became pregnant with you.

No, in the next year, she said, You know, you're like a rattlesnake around my neck and I have trouble saying, I love you when you were growing up, you didn't have people with a lived experience that we're role modeling that there was nobody.

Thought it was the only one in the world.

E I knew I was different than my God.

We all felt alone.

Yeah, well, we were alone.

And who could Who could?

That was part of the who could you talk to when you are hidden like that or you are trying to find yourselves or you are coded.

It demonstrates that there's something wrong with you And so we need to get away from that.

There is nothing wrong with LGBT Q people, you know, I think about the 12 or 13 year old kid Seeing life represented visibly would have a profound effect.

I think on May, because people need models, people need to see gay people who are happy going on with their lives.

People in relationships way were young.

I know that was San Francisco.

I know E had a black beard black hair just to see gay people represented.

I'm amazed that the pace of change the natural aspect of being human is you want to know your own tribe If your tribe isn't portrayed in advertising isn't portrayed within the companies or the institutions around you.

Who are you?

When I was growing up, I never saw myself.

I didn't even know I existed.

Quite honestly, advertising absolutely has the power to shift perceptions to start conversations.

Knowing makes it less different.

I think it makes it approachable.

It makes people realize it's always been part of the fabric.

It was just hidden away because of bias.

Since the nineties, we've seen an explosion of of these representations, but some are sort of critical of that.

They would say it was business and not politics.

And so now we're in a moment where there's MAWR emphasis or concern about the authenticity.

And is it political, or is it just a business motive?

Stonewall Columbus is the first and on Li L G B T Q Community Center in central Ohio.

I think all of us within the LGBTQ plus community are wrestling in our own ways with how do we bridge the divides?

How can corporations continue to partner with LGBT organizations so they're not there just to wave a banner in the parade?

That vein of thought being people don't want companies around.

People think that think they're taking advantage of the community by being there.

Yeah, we were called to express what was going on with our chorus as a vehicle toe.

Talk about the trans community, and we're really excited about that.

You don't get to see these stories a lot.

You don't hear these stories enough.

We had some choristers that were like Great, let's do it And we did have a few people that were like, Well, are we being token ized?

Are we just being used as a great philanthropic product placement?

You know, that's the packaging that we're putting out there, and I like to say, Well, it depends on what you want to use your activism for.

You don't always see a trans person doing something you don't always see a gender nonconforming gender, non binary person doing something, Is it?

Is it pandering?

Using lbgt representation to sell products?

We need to be careful of just writing it off completely.

Co optation does exist.

We can see it when it's bad.

Um, but we also need visibility.

The very fact that it's impacted somebody to say, You know, I don't like that.

Why are they doing this?

Has introduced a whole heck of a lot of discussions we never had before e can't explain why parents, uh, reject their Children.

Some kind of disappointment, some sense of failure on their own parts.

You know, we have a thing here at Stonewall.

We say every pride of somebody's first pride and every commercial could be somebody's first opportunity to see themselves reflected positively on television.

It could be some mothers first opportunity to see that my child's not the on Lee child that's wrestling with these kinds of questions.

And we're seeing Mawr and Mawr younger people coming out earlier.

And I think that visibility has led to that.

My name is Riggins von.

I live in Mason, Ohio, and I'm 15 years old.

I would definitely have thoughts about I'm not like everybody else.

You know, I don't feel right in this body.

I felt like I was right person, just wrong.

Body E.

Before seventh grade started, I had a group of friends, um, that I spoke to before school started, um, and told them, you know, my name is Regan's.

Now, um, I go by, he him pronounced, and that's it.

And they were like, Okay, there was never a conversation that, you know, I'm transgender.

There's never that e never had really a coming out thing because it was always, always kind of there.

Ah, lot of people are scared of the unknown.

What they don't know.

Um definitely things that are different because they have no idea what it iss.

You mentioned that your grandma still gets a little messed up on them.

Your name sometimes and things like that.

She's she's an older woman.

Eso itt's her excuse.

So it's OK, which means, but she means well, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

That's really she's making us chocolate cream pie.

So e, I've had people tell me that they've changed their minds about how they feel about changed under people listening.

Tow our story, knowing us knowing Riggins, and it really personalizes it as a parent.

When you see like an advertisement that has the transgender community portrayed, How do you How do you react to that?

How does that make you feel?

We based on your own experience, I love it.

I think it's amazing.

I I asked you, um uh, if the actors in the P and G commercial where the transgender boy is shaving for the first time, I asked you, Is that really a transgender man.

Is that really his dad?

And you said Yeah, and I was like, That's amazing.

Just that there, so comfortable with themselves to be out there and that, like Riggins Conceicao, something like that and it feels more normalized.

She's like a best friend.

She doesn't like me to call her my best friend, but she's.

We work very, very well together sometimes too.

Well, what do you say to people that don't quite get it?

Or do you ever run into people that are like supported?

No, I'm just kidding.

Wow.

Okay, there's always going to be naysayers.

There's always going to be people who holds your point of view.

Naysayers.

I've seen that.

What's the word haters gonna hate?

You know where the world's largest advertiser our images affect how people see the world.

Are images affect how people see themselves, Even if people, if it didn't move the needle from a business standpoint, would we support LGBT Q visibility?

Yes, because it's about humanity.

I was asked to go to one of these organizations that was opposing the community advertising and just any anything that we were doing in terms of shows or pride parade or whatever the case may be, they said.

What you're doing by your contributions to pride and other things is that you're supporting the other side.

And I said, We don't define families.

Love, defiance, families.

We serve.

We serve all people.

We have employees who are gay.

We have consumers who are gay.

We're going to continue to serve them.

We walked out.

E don't think they have this much trouble today, but I think that goes back to Harvey Harvey milks admonition.

You need to come out.

They need to see you.

You need to be visible.

You need to be out.

That changes things.

There has to be something that drives the need to discuss, to think about, to feel about to dream about, and it's that place change is made.