Note: During Pride Month, SIS is highlighting the work of several alumni whose professional roles feature advocacy for policies that protect and advance the goals of the LGTBQ+ community.

According to Human Rights Campaign, 70 anti-LGBTQ laws have been enacted in 2023 to date, including bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, curriculum and book censorship, and license-to-discriminate laws, to name a few. This Pride Month comes at a critical time for the well-being of the LGBTQ+ community in the US, and advocacy and representation in policy, media, and schools are more important than ever.

Amanda Hurwitz, SIS/BA ’21, is working on the front lines of the LGBTQ+ representation movement in both media and education through her roles at GLAAD and History UnErased. We caught up with Amanda to discuss the state of representation in media, the importance of LGBTQ history, and why Pride Month advocacy is about more than just rainbows.

Finding a Focus

During her time at SIS, Hurwitz found her passion for advocacy and justice through her areas of study in Identity, Race, Gender, and Culture, and Justice, Ethics, and Human Rights. The emphasis that her SIS courses placed on intersectionality and cultural influences helped shape her ability to place culture and sensitivity at the heart of her advocacy work.

While taking classes on topics such as LGBTQ history and LGBTQ films, Hurwitz found herself drawn to LGBTQ advocacy in both media and education. Combining her passion for advocacy with her SIS education in human rights and justice, she found her career focus.

“My courses constantly would beg the question: ‘how do we protect human rights and simultaneously respect the cultural nuances of these different regions and countries that we want to do work in?’ This concept heavily informs the way that I approach activism, which needs to have roots in respect and justice at all times,” Hurwitz said.

Making a More Inclusive Media

Following her passion for activism and advocacy in media, Hurwitz joined GLAAD—a nonprofit organization that works to ensure accurate media representation for the LGBTQ+ community. At GLAAD, she works with the entertainment research team, which compiles two annual reports. The first report is the “Where Are We on TV” report, which forecasts the presence of LGBTQ characters for the upcoming television season. In the 2022-23 season report, of the 596 LGBTQ characters on TV, 175 (29%) will not be returning due to series cancellations, endings, miniseries/anthology format, or a character dying or leaving the show. Of those, 140 characters won't return due specifically to series cancellations.

The second report that GLAAD produces is the Studio Responsibility Index, which examines the quantity, quality, and diversity of LGBTQ characters in films produced by major motion picture studios each year. This report utilizes the Vito Russo test to analyze how LGBTQ characters are portrayed in films. According to GLAAD, “Passing the Vito Russo test is the first step, not the finish line” for filmmakers.

“This set of criteria helps guide filmmakers to create multi-dimensional LGBTQ characters and provides more of a barometer for representation because representation is so subjective,” Hurwitz said.

Hurwitz believes that the mission of GLAAD is deeply important to the LGBTQ+ community and that the work they do can help bring about positive change in representation in entertainment and media.

“What we hope to accomplish through our work with studios in Hollywood is to educate and inform creators on how to produce compelling and entertaining LGBTQ characters and storylines that don't reinforce harmful stereotypes that are persistent in the media,” Hurwitz said.

Bringing LGBTQ History to the Classroom

History UnErased is a nonprofit organization that has the goal of putting LGBTQ+ history back into classrooms. The organization has the first and only K-12 LGBTQ-inclusive US history and social studies curriculum, drawing on resources from renowned historians, archivists, policymakers, and institutions.

“The main goal is to make up for the absence of LGBTQ identities in history lessons in how students learn about our shared human history. This lack of LGBTQ knowledge within schools is creating real tangible harm for LGBTQ youth,” Hurwitz said.

At a time when states are banning and censoring books with LGBTQ characters and themes and are enacting anti-LGBTQ legislation such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Hurwitz believes the work that History UnErased is doing to bring comprehensive and inclusive LGBTQ+ education to schools is vital for the safety of LGBTQ youth.

“LGBTQ youth are at a very important time in their upbringing, and unfortunately, they are at risk. This organization aims to dispel misconceptions about the community and hopefully affect how people view not just the community but also the harmful legislation that's being passed around the United States,” said Hurwitz.

Advocacy is More Than Rainbow Logos

Working in LGBTQ+ advocacy in both the media and education spheres has offered Hurwitz a unique perspective on the difference between true advocacy work and performative allyship.

“A large issue that we see is corporations slapping a rainbow flag onto their logo but then doing really nothing to help the community,” Hurwitz explained. “This year in particular, there's been a lot of backlash from a small sector who are pushing back against these corporations and their advocacy work. We want to make sure that the corporations stand by their advertising and their marketing and are standing with us not just this month, but year-round.”

For the LGBTQ+ community and advocates, Pride Month is more than just marketing campaigns, rainbow logos, and parades. It is a time to bring LGBTQ+ issues and movements to the forefront of people’s minds and provides a platform for change.

“Although Pride is a celebration, we definitely need to still focus on the fact that we are at a very pivotal point in this fight for equality,” Hurwitz said. “The ‘Don't Say Gay’ bills, the book bans, the bans on speaking about our identities, the attacks on gender-affirming healthcare for trans and non-binary people—it’s all affecting LGBTQ youth, and it's something that this month and every month is really harming the community and perceptions of the community.”

In entertainment and media, LGBTQ+ activism has come a long way, but there is a long road ahead, and the work is not done. Even after Pride month is over, the advocacy work and fight for inclusion will continue for Hurwitz and others whose work is focused on making the world a safe place for all.