BILLBOARD & THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER PRESENT PRIDE SUMMIT

By Vic Gerami

In conjunction with Billboard’s Pride issue, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter have joined together to produce the first ever Pride Summit, slated for this Thursday, August 8th at the 1 Hotel West Hollywood.

The event is stacked with panels and conversations with some of the biggest LGBTQ+ artists and allies today.

The cast and executives of POSE, Tegan and Sara, Hayley Kiyoko, Big Freedia, iLoveMakonnen, songwriters Justin Tranter and Teddy Geiger, Daya, Greyson Chance, NBC’s Songland star Shane Mcanally, RuPaul’s Drag Race favorites Trixie Mattel, Alaska, Peppermint, Blair St Clair and more are all confirmed to attend the event.

“”Our company has a year-round dedication to diversity, inclusion, and representation, and we’re proud to establish the summit during this year’s historic summer of pride to honor the LGBTQ in real life” said Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group President, Deanna Brown.

She added, “This event, our new hire of Alexis Fish and our comprehensive editorial and data products underscore our commitment and expertise in super-serving the LGBTQ+ community in a multitude of ways.”

The summit is set to host conversations about bringing LGBTQ+ voices into the songwriters’ room, emerging queer artists, eradicating homophobia and the best practices in safe workplaces for queer and gender non-conforming individuals.

For more information including a complete schedule of events, please click here.

Vic Gerami

A noted columnist, Vic Gerami is also a journalist and media contributor who is also publisher and editor of The Blunt Post. His show, 'The Blunt Post with Vic' on Public Radio KPFK 90.7 FM, part of Pacifica Network, launched in 2018. Today reaching national international audiences, Gerami first built a foundation of knowledge and skills by learning the media industry during his years at Frontiers Magazine, followed by positions at LA Weekly and Voice Media Group. For the second time, Gerami was selected as a finalist in the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards “Columnist of the Year” category in 2019, having first made the final round of consideration in 2017. His celebrity Q&A column, '10 Questions with Vic', is syndicated internationally. The Wall Street Journal featured Gerami as a “leading gay activist” in its landmark 2008 coverage of opposition to Proposition 8, the ballot measure that for years denied same-sex couples in California the freedom to marry. In addition to his years of volunteer work as a leading advocate for marriage equality, later Gerami went on to serve as a Planning Committee member for the historic Resist March in 2017. Vic Gerami is also a founding board member of Equality Armenia. In 2015, Gerami was referenced in the landmark Supreme Court civil rights case, Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Court held in a 5–4 decision that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Vic Gerami is a contributor to the LGBTQ San Diego County News, Windy City Times, Montrose Star, DC Life Magazine, Out & About Nashville, Q Virginia, GNI MAG, QNotes, GoWeHo, Asbarez, California Courier, Desert Daily Guide, Armenian Weekly, GED, The Pride LA, IN Magazine, OUT Traveler, The Fight and The Advocate Magazine among others.

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