The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

Last night, Pride in DC kicked off with an interesting panel discussion called "Out on Assignment: How LGBT Journalists Influence the Media Landscape." The discussion focused on the past, present, and future of LGBT media, taking a look at how it provides an important service for the community. Panelists included Bilerico's own Bil Browning, alongside Kerry Eleveld of Equality Matters (formerly The Advocate's Washington correspondent), Chris Johnson of The Washington Blade, and Sean Bugg of Metro Weekly.

In the Chastelton Ballroom, the journalists answered questions from Matt Friedman, the moderator for the night. To a packed room of over one hundred people, they spoke about their publications' recent trials and reflected on how media producers have learned from those missteps. Bil and Sean more specifically tackled questions about online media and the scope of blogging.

The future of LGBT journalism has been considered and debated extensively in the past few years, and the future of journalism as a whole has been speculated about even more so. But last night we saw that LGBT media is here to stay - no mainstream, non-niche outlet offers the same thorough reporting, commentary, and coverage of the issues that specifically affect the LGBT community.

Eleveld summed up this point expertly, saying that as long as there are laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity, journalists will need to cover those stories, provide that information, and continue to expose inequalities. She said:

I would hope that some time in the next decade, LGBT political journalists will be unnecessary, [but at this point] LGBT journalists are more necessary than ever.