The comedy-drama won GLAAD’s inaugural media award for outstanding kids and family programming last year but was canceled after three seasons. It happened on “Andi Mack,” a live-action, coming-of-age tween series that premiered on the Disney Channel in 2017, when a gay character, Cyrus, was coming out. Sometimes, he said, GLAAD is called on to review LGBTQ content before it airs. It’s really something that gets experienced by everyone in society.” This is not just something that impacts LGBTQ families. “Not only have they heard from LGBTQ families but they’ve heard from other families who are like, yeah, my kid has a friend who’s LGBTQ or my friend goes over to his friend’s house and their parents are LGBTQ. “What we’ve said to them all along is that we will lock arms with you and we will make sure that you hear from the families who are being impacted by this in a positive way,” Stokes said of GLAAD’s work behind the scenes to support greater representation.
Zeke Stokes, chief programs officer for the media monitoring nonprofit GLAAD, said the struggle for inclusion has become easier as a number of LGBTQ writers and producers have made their way into positions of influence, though they’re still a fraction overall.
