Jewel of the Week: Rashad Robinson

Ask Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), what Black History Month means to him, and he may recall for you his earliest civil rights activism, going to NAACP meetings with his activist parents, and knocking on doors for candidates in his community.  He may go on to talk with you about the importance of the right to vote, and recall his time as Communications Director at the Right to Vote Campaign, or his time as the National Field Director with FairVote, where he currently serves on the advisory board.

Black History Month, he may say, is a time for reflecting on the heroism of Bayard Rustin, James Baldwin, Barbara Jordan and a number of other freedom fighters, while rededicating himself to one of the most important battles for equal rights today—justice and full equality under the law for all LGBT citizens.

Robinson is an experienced organizer, advocate and communicator, and he has mobilized people to engage and reform their educational and political institutions. He leads GLAAD's media advocacy and anti-defamation programs with a bicoastal staff that works to promote fair, accurate and inclusive images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and ultimately to change hearts and minds and end homophobia.  Robinson works directly with other senior staff at GLAAD and oversees programs that include Advertising Media, Entertainment Media, Media Field Strategy, National News, Spanish Language Media, Religion, Faith and Values Research and Messaging, in addition to the organization’s work in communities of color and serving as Associate Producer of the GLAAD Media Awards.

Robinson is a frequent spokesperson in print, radio and television, and has appeared in hundreds of news stories on programs ranging from Access Hollywood to The O'Reilly Factor, and for myriad outlets including ABC, BET, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation and Vanity Fair, among others. In 2004, he appeared as the youngest contestant (Campaign Manager) on Showtime’s Political Reality series American Candidate.

Robinson knows how critical his role is in challenging the media to present diverse voices within the LGBT community.  As a visible African American gay man among the senior leadership at GLAAD, he has taken pride in victories of working with African American publications to tell the African American LGBT experience. Robinson and GLAAD media staff helped Essence, a lifestyle magazine targeted to African American women, tell the story of transwoman Cookie Fields in its November 2006 edition.  The Essence audience read of Cookie’s struggle with her sexuality as a teenager, as a Marine, as a married man and father of three, as an LAPD officer, and then about her transition.  GLAAD also supported and advised the magazine’s recent efforts to tell coming out stories and use inclusive terminology.

GLAAD’s staff met with the editorial staff of Johnson Publications, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, and owner Linda Johnson-Rice for a historic gathering, and was pleased to find the editorial staff very open to GLAAD’s story ideas and spokespeople. GLAAD has also held meetings with AOL Black Voices, BET, Black Radio, the New York Beacon, and worked with local community-based African American Press such as the Afro-American and the LA Wave, and Robinson has been a part of it all.

Robinson understands that the public’s perception of LGBT people is largely based upon what they see on television, read in print, or hear on the radio.  In an interview with Colorlines, a national newsmagazine on race and politics, Robinson told author Beandrea Davis:

“We live in a world with a tremendous amount of media. We’re hit with it in all sorts of ways, but it also comes into our homes and workplaces in a way that can educate us, change our minds and shape our opinions. Many people—straight and gay—in my generation’s first, ongoing experiences with LGBT people are through the media.”

In the interview, Robinson recalled his first interactions with people he knew were gay, and his first image of a gay person in the media:

“....I definitely remember those first episodes of The Real World San Francisco. There was a humanity to the images that was very different from things you might hear out in the street or from family members or community people. Pedro was someone that forced us to care about someone that we didn’t know we were supposed to. It challenges our opinions, assumptions and education about who is important in the world and who is not.”

A decade after Pedro Zamora joined five strangers for The Real World San Francisco, two openly gay men were cast of The Real World Philadelphia for the first time, including its first openly gay African American male, Karamo Brown.  While there is much work to be done in dispelling the myths and negative images of LGBT people in the media, Robinson applauds how far we’ve come since The Real World San Francisco.

Robinson can clearly see that history is being made every day with African American LGBT people.  He celebrates the likes of Phill Wilson, founder and Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute, and Ron Oden, who in 2003 became the first Black openly gay mayor of Palm Springs, a city with only a two-percent Black population.  He applauds the accomplishments of E. Lynn Harris, Alice Walker, Wanda Sykes, Octavia Butler, Lee Daniels, and the advocates and everyday people who are challenging assumptions and increasing acceptance by telling their stories and being out and proud in their community, workplace, churches and schools.  Robinson notes, “At the end of the day, this is about ensuring that we are able to take care of the people we love and participate and feel safe in our communities.  For me, it’s deeply personal.”

GLAAD’s Communities of African Descent media staff, under Robinson’s leadership, works to elevate these voices and stories of LGBT people of color through holding media trainings, pitching stories, and working with editorial boards towards fair, accurate and inclusive coverage of LGBT people of color.

The impact of Rashad Robinson at GLAAD and within the movement is paramount.  GLAAD’s importance, particularly among LGBT communities of color, is very much because of Robinson’s dedication to the cause, and that is why he deserves our sincere thanks and recognition as the inaugural NBJC Jewel of the Week. 

Media Contact

For press inquiries, please contact Stacey Gates, NBJC Press Secretary, at 202-319-1552, ext. 25.