LGBT in Entertainment: Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Town Hall

The SAG-AFTRA LGBT Committee, SAG Foundation and UCLA Williams Institute Present a live-streamed event LGBT in Entertainment: Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Town Hall with featured speaker Dan Bucatinsky and special remarks by SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard.
 
Don't miss this members town hall discussion of the results of the first-ever study of sexual orientation and gender identity in the entertainment industry, gleaned from nearly 6,000 SAG-AFTRA member respondents.
 
Join featured speakers, Emmy winner, Dan Bucatinsky (Web Therapy, Scandal), representatives from the SAG-AFTRA LGBT Committee and scholars from one of the nation’s premier LGBT think-tanks, UCLA’s Williams Institute, as we discuss the experiences of the LGBT member in entertainment and what attitudes persist in the industry that encourage members to stay in the closet. 
 
This event is live in Los Angeles and New York and will be live-streamed across the country, so members can make their voices heard about the next steps of utilizing the study in the industry. Read more about the study by clicking here.
 
When: Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014
5:30 p.m. P.T. / 8:30 p.m. E.T.
 
Los Angeles 5:30 – 7: 30 p.m. P.T.
SAG Foundation Actors Center
5757 Wilshire Blvd. Suite M101
Los Angeles, CA
Parking will be validated.
Click Here to RSVP
You must register on SAG Foundation website to RSVP.
 
New York 8:30 – 10:30 E.T.
Board Room
1900 Broadway, 5th Floor
New York, NY
Click Here to RSVP
You must register on SAG Foundation website to RSVP.

***The event will be Live Streamed***
To watch the panel you DO NOT have to log into the website.
Just go to sagfoundation.org/livestream.

Attendees are encouraged to ask questions in-person or submit by email to LiveStream@sagfoundation.org or tweet with the hashtag #SAGF.

Speakers

Dan Bucatinsky won the 2013 Emmy Award for his portrayal of James Novak on the hit ABC series, Scandal. Dan will be back on the air this fall on in the NBC comedy Marry Me. In addition, along with longtime producing partner Lisa Kudrow, Dan recently completed producing and starring in a six-episode comeback for the cult HBO comedy The Comeback due back on HBO in November. He and Kudrow also have their recently Emmy-nominated docu-series Who Do You Think You Are? back on the air for a fifth season on TLC this summer. And in October, they'll be back on Showtime with their Emmy-nominated web-to-TV series, Web Therapy created with Dan's husband, acclaimed filmmaker, Don Roos. Television audiences will also remember Dan from Grey's Anatomy, In Plain Sight, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Will & Grace, Weeds and others. Film roles include his indie romantic comedy All Over the Guy, Under the Tuscan Sun, as well as Bounce and The Opposite of Sex, both directed by Roos, with whom he has two kids, Eliza and Jonah who inspired him to write the book Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?, his best-selling, autobiographical tales of parenthood.

UCLA Williams Institute Panelists:

M. V. Lee Badgett is a Williams Institute Distinguished Scholar and Director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration and Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Jody L. Herman, PhD: Peter J. Cooper Public Policy Fellow and Manager of Transgender Research at the Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law.

SAG-AFTRA LGBT Committee Panelists:

Gary Riotto (Panel Co-Moderator) is a member of SAG-AFTRA’s LGBT Committee, an actor, director and writer with recent acting credits on Bones, Parenthood and Go-on. For over a decade, he has run youth theatre and education programs connected to New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital's Adolescent Health Center.

Jason Stuart is the National Co-Chair of SAG-AFTRA's LGBT Committee. Jason is an actor, comedian and one of the top openly gay male comics in the country. He can be seen in the recently released feature Love is Strange (John Lithgow & Alfred Molina) as well as Real Rob, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Entourage, House and The Closer. Jason has also had his own comedy special Making it to the Middle and mentors youth in the entertainment industry.

Dana Kristen Vahle  is a member of SAG-AFTRA’s LGBT Committee and a former U.S. Army Aviator. A longtime SAG-AFTRA member, Dana has worked as a pilot for NBC News and aerial coordinator for film and television productions. 

Traci Godfrey is best known for her recurring roles on Law & Order Criminal Intent, As The World Turns, and Grand Theft Auto as well as guest-star work on Sopranos, One Life To Live, All My Children and others.  She is a fierce advocate for LGBT rights, within both the acting community and elsewhere and serves as the National Co-Chair of the SAG-AFTRA LGBT Committee.  She is an accomplished voiceover artist and proud long-time board member of Legacy SAG and the recently merged SAG-AFTRA.  Her play, Sweet Texas Reckoning, slated for an Off-Broadway run in early 2015, has been acclaimed for its recognition of LGBT issues, racism, and the bigotry that still haunts this world.

SAG-AFTRA Staff Panelists:
 
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for SAG-AFTRA, responsible for facilitating decision-making and accountability across the union’s staff team, as well as for all legal affairs and strategy. He also oversees departments handling government affairs and public policy, international and external affairs, EEO/diversity, governance, and professional representatives (talent agents and personal managers). He is a delegate to the International Federation of Actors (FIA) and the conveyor of its international working group on LGBT equality. He is also an adjunct professor of international law at USC Law School, and a past co-president of the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. Prior to joining the union in 2000, Duncan served as a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County.

Adam Moore (Panel Co-Moderator) is National Director of EEO & Diversity for SAG-AFTRA. Since joining Screen Actors Guild in 2005 as associate national director of Affirmative Action and Diversity, he has been responsible for developing and implementing a national diversity plan of action to achieve accurate representation of those groups historically excluded from the entertainment and news media.