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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 4/5/0
5

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.

 
 

Triad Equality Alliance ● P.O. Box 19842 Greensboro, NC 27419 ●  info@triadequality.org

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