TEA comes out of 'The Commercial Closet,'
Mike
Wilke, executive director and founder of
Commercial Closet
Association, explored lgbt images in advertising during a
video presentation from 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday, October 5, 2006, at UNC-Greensboro's
Elliott University Center (EUC) Auditorium. The event was
sponsored by the Wellness Center of Student Health Services, UNCG
PRIDE!, Replacements Ltd., Triad Equality Alliance and Rick & Pat
Price.
Wilke,
an award-winning business journalist, created Commercial Closet to
educate and influence the advertising world to understand, respect and
include lgbt references in advertising to achieve a more accepting
society while achieving successful business results.
His
funny, fascinating presentation
tracked 30 years of lgbt references and images in advertising
worldwide.
Newspaper ad addresses religion-based
discrimination
The
Triad Equality Alliance teamed with
Faith in America
for a full-page ad in the News & Record on Tuesday, June 13,
2006.
The ad, entitled "A Simple History
Lesson," surveyed some of the ways in which religion has been used in
the past to promote bigotry against African Americans, women and
interracial couples, and demonstrated the link to religion-based
prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people
today. View the ad here.
Faith in America, Inc., is a national,
non-profit organization dedicated to the emancipation of lgbt people
from bigotry disguised as religious truth. The group has developed a
series of ads to challenge religion-based bigotry against lgbt people.
The ads are being published in small, medium and large market-area
newspapers around the country.
The TEA/Faith in America ad joined the
Guilford Green Foundation's
"Straight Allies" campaign ad, which ran in the News & Record
on June 13, June 22 and 27. This campaign enables "straight
but not narrow" supporters of lgbt equality to make their voices
heard.
Channel 2 seeks TEA comments on marriage
amendment
posted 6/11/05
WFMY News 2 coverage of the proposed
Constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage included
interviews with TEA Chair Judith Kobler and the Rev. Alex
Richardson.
'Valued' begins to generate media coverage
posted 4/17/05
The "Valued" billboards, scheduled to go
up shortly, already are getting noticed. The News & Record
previewed the campaign with a
story on Saturday, April 16.
The story includes comments from TEA
co-chair Judith Kobler, and features billboard participants Cheryl
and Tracy Bridges.
DiversityInc features TEA
'Valued' billboard
campaign
posted 4/13/05
DiversityInc and
DiversityInc.com, a
magazine and website that focuses on the business benefits of
diversity, is featuring the Triad Equality Alliance's new
Valued
billboard campaign in an article that appears April 13.
The article
includes comments from billboard participant Jasma Johnson as well
as TEA co-chairs Sean Cowart and Judith Kobler.
DiversityInc's audience of 150,000
print subscribers and 304,231 registered web users includes senior
management at large corporations, minority and women business
owners, and other managers. DiversityInc also provides a
Career
Center with various jobseeking resources for professionals.
Billboard participant Canada named to Biz
Journal leaders list
posted 4/5/05
The
Business Journal of the Triad has named Ivan Canada, a participant in TEA's
abOUT Face and
Valued billboard
campaigns, as one of its "40 Leaders Under Forty." Canada, 26, is a
Realtor with Dwellings Inc.
An excerpt from Canada's nomination
quoted by the Business Journal calls him "an outstanding
young leader and especially with issues related to tolerance." The
nomination goes on to state, "Ivan offers enthusiasm and
intelligence to every project that he encounters... [He] is a
small-business owner and has grown his business successfully."
Canada, who holds bachelors degrees
in economics and journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill, at first was
reluctant to appear on an abOUT Face billboard, but changed his mind
after talking with family and friends. "I have been out to my family
and friends for 8 years now," he says, "and I realize that I am
extremely fortunate to have the unconditional love and support from
these people and the only way to help more people achieve an
understanding and acceptance of gays and lesbians in our community,
was through more people standing up and identifying themselves as
such."
The Business Journal chooses
its annual 40 Under Forty list from nominations solicited throughout
the Triad. A panel of community leaders makes the final selections.
The list appears in the publication's
March 18-25, 2005, issue.
TEA ad airs, reps appear, on Christian call-in
radio show
posted 11/9/04
The radio show
Truthtalk Live
aired the Triad Equality Alliance 60-second radio spot on Wednesday,
November 10. Listeners from Florida to Oregon
heard the ad; on the station's 15 affiliates .
After the spot, callers asked questions of TEA
co-chair Judith Kobler and Alex Richardson, Minister of Unitarian
Universalist Church of Greensboro. Alex is a gay minister to a
mostly straight congregation and also appears on one of the TEA
abOUT Face billboards.
Listeners can send
thanks to producer Tom Booth for airing the radio spot at
tbooth@830wtru.com.
"abOUT Face"
generates media coverage for TEA
posted 10/14/04
The Triad Equality
Alliance's abOUT Face billboard campaign received notice in all
the right places -- and some unexpected ones.
The campaign
got a
write-up in The Advocate, the national gay and
lesbian news magazine (October 26, page 16). The article noted that
the billboards are up during the International Home Furnishings
Market, which attracts 70,000 visitors to the area, and depicts the
two "gay parents" billboards.
Wake Forest
University's Old Gold & Black student newspaper covered the abOUT Face campaign with an October 21 story about a member of
the WFU community who appears on one of the billboards. The Winston-Salem Journal featured the campaign in an
article on October 11.
The News &
Record of Greensboro covered the TEA project with an
article and
an editorial
over the weekend of September 23-25. The article profiles partners
Mike Barringer and Jeff Everette, who appear on one of the signs.
The editorial noted that "the
billboards are a gentle reminder that gay people are just like
everyone else and want to be seen that way."
Meanwhile, TEA
Co-chairs Judith Kobler and Sean Cowart wrote an eloquent
letter to the editor
of the News & Record explaining the abOUT Face campaign.
Far from the
Triad, abOUT Face won raves from Detroit News
columnist Deb Price,
who praises the campaign and said, "Far too few
of us are exuberantly out."
TEA gets Guilford Green grants
posted 9/30/04
The
Guilford Green Foundation has
awarded two grants totaling $9,500 to the Triad Equality Alliance.
The funding will support TEA's billboard projects, with one of the
two grants, worth $5,000, going towards the "abOUT Face" effort.
The grants were
presented at the Green Foundation's fall barbecue on Sunday, October
24 at Blandwood Mansion in Greensboro.
Cable viewers catch TEA
information
posted 9/23/04
Greensboro Community
Television (GCTV) aired a Triad Equality Alliance video
display during October on its Cable 8 community bulletin board -- a forum
can reach an audience of 100,000 area residents. The video featured Gay Equality and abOUT Face billboards along with
information about key dates in LGBT history and LGBT celebrities.
The TEA radio ad will provide the audio.
Cable 8 and GCTV provide Greensboro
& Guilford County residents, organizations, agencies and
institutions with non-commercial television training, equipment,
production and related services on a first-come, first-served
non-discriminatory basis, free from censorship. Cable 8 community
bulletin boards offer non-profit groups in Greensboro and
surrounding area the opportunity to get the word out about their
activities.
TEA receives $2,000 Adam Foundation grant
posted 7/30/04
The
Triad Equality Alliance received a $2,000 grant from
The
Adam Foundation Inc., a
Winston-Salem group that provides financial support to the lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender community.
The grant helps
fund TEA's ongoing projects, including billboards, radio ads and
television spots.
"The first time I saw our billboard with those two words 'all equal'
beneath the image of the constitution, I knew its simple message had
the power to change minds, if enough people saw it over and over
again. The Adam Foundation, with their affirming and generous grant
energizes us more than ever, and we are so appreciative for this
confirmation of their support," says TEA Co-chair Judith Kobler.
Founded in 1991
to provide emergency assistance to the Forsyth County AIDS Task
Force, the non-profit Adam Foundation has since expanded its reach
to promote the identity, strength and well-being of the local LGBT
community and to support organizations serving persons living with
HIV and AIDS. Its main fundraiser, the
Adam Festival,
took place on October 16.
The TEA grant
is one of six grants totaling $26,000 that the foundation awarded in 2004.
Other recipients
included the AIDS Care Service of Winston-Salem, Lexington's Positive
Wellness Alliance, the Triad Pride Men's Chorus, the Winston-Salem
Theatre Alliance and the Wake County University Baptist Medical
Center Department of Public Health Sciences.
Richard Partridge and
Cheryl Hopkins drafted the Adam Foundation grant application for
TEA. |