Press Release
February 23, 2005
NAHJ Creates Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Caucus
Washington, D.C. -- The board of directors of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists voted to adopt the formation of a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender (GLBT) Caucus at a meeting in New York City on February 19.
The caucus will ensure that GLBT members of NAHJ have a clear and strong voice within the organization. The proposal for the caucus was co-sponsored by board members Cindy Rodriguez, a columnist at the Denver Post, and Elizabeth Zavala, assistant metro editor of The Dallas Morning News.
“This is a great day for NAHJ,” said Zavala who is also a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. “This caucus will open doors for many gay Latinos who might have felt that they didn't have a place in this organization. It will also offer our membership as a whole a forum to collaborate on issues affecting the gay Latino community.”
"I'm proud to work on a progressive board that recognizes the need to embrace NAHJ members who face a potential double-whammy of discrimination that comes from being both Latino and gay,” added Rodriguez. "The creation of this caucus is part of a larger effort by NAHJ to reach out to Latino journalists of all stripes. Our next big push is to attract the thousands of Latino journalists who work in the Spanish-language media."
As adopted, the GLBT Caucus will focus on:
- Creating a GLBT Media Monitoring Task Force that will monitor media bias of GLBT Latinos and report to the NAHJ Issues Committee. The Task Force will work with the Issues Committee, headed by NAHJ’s Vice President of Print and South Florida Sun-Sentinel Senior Reporter Rafael Olmeda, to suggest pragmatic ways that NAHJ should respond.
- Reaching out to other NAHJ members or potential members who are gay via a list serve that would act as a forum for GLBT members to connect and a place for all NAHJ members to discuss GLBT issues.
- Offering panel suggestions. Caucus members will make suggestions on panels for national and regional NAHJ conferences regarding issues of specific interest to gay Latinos.
NAHJ is seeking members to serve as co-chairs of the caucus and on the media monitoring task force. More information about the GLBT Caucus and how to become involved will be posted on NAHJ’s Website at www.nahj.org as it becomes available.
Questions may also be directed to Cindy Rodriguez at RodriguezNAHJ@aol.com and Elizabeth Zavala at lzavala@dallasnews.com.
Founded in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation's largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 2,300 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media.
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