The Human Rights Campaign will honor Dan Levy with the HRC Visibility Award at the organization’s annual Los Angeles Dinner in March.
Levy is best known for his portrayal of David Rose, one of the first openly pansexual characters on TV, on Schitt’s Creek, which he co-created with his father, Eugene Levy.
In addition to acting, Levy serves as a showrunner, executive producer, and writer of the Emmy-nominated comedy series.
Levy was featured on OUT Magazine‘s “Out 100” list, which honors the year’s most impactful and influential LGBTQ people.
In June 2019, he was also honored on Queerty‘s Pride50 list of “trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people.”
Levy was among several celebrities who offered messages of support for LGBTQ youth as part of a series of GLAAD videos for Spirit Day, which serves to support LGBTQ youth and call for an end to homophobic and transphobic bullying.
“Through his advocacy, his creative leadership, and his hilarious, authentic portrayal as David Rose on Schitt’s Creek, Dan Levy is moving LGBTQ visibility forward by inspiring us to embrace all of who we are,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “By creating and inhabiting the world of Schitt’s Creek as a community where people are welcomed no matter who they are or whom they love, Levy is helping take all of us closer to that reality.”
“I have been a longtime admirer and supporter of the HRC,” Levy said in a statement. “To be recognized by this organization means the world to me and I am incredibly touched by the honor.”
HRC previously announced that it would honor award-winning singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Janelle Monáe with the HRC Equality Award at the 2020 Los Angeles Dinner, which takes place at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown on Saturday, Mar. 28.
Monáe, who identifies as both pansexual and nonbinary, is being honored for using her platform as an artist to promote the importance of LGBTQ visibility and representation.
Police in Minsk, Belarus, raided the home of a gay couple and beat them. Andrei and Sasha, who are both university students, said that security forces barged into their home last fall and demanded that they unlock their smartphones and surrender the names of "gays in Minsk and Moscow."
"They wanted to expose an 'underground network' of gay people in Belarus, following the example of Russia," Andrei told the Associated Press. "They openly told us that if it is banned in Russia, then it should be banned in Belarus, too."
According to human rights advocates, Andrei and Sasha are just two of at least 32 individuals who have been detained and beaten in seven different cities over the past three months, including 10 transgender and nonbinary individuals.
Disney has removed a transgender storyline from Win or Lose, a series about a co-ed middle school softball team called the Pickles.
The eight-episode Pixar series, premiering February 19, 2025, on Disney+, will follow the experiences of different Pickles teammates and their friends. A 14-year-old character who would have identified as trans in the original version will remain in the show, but the lines of dialogue referencing gender identity have been excised.
The decision to cut the references was made months ago, aligning with a rightward political shift in which Americans are becoming less supportive of transgender visibility.
Retail giant Walmart has become the largest U.S. corporation to roll back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives amid fervor by conservatives to eliminate policies they claim unfairly disadvantage white people, straight people, and cisgender individuals.
Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist, has been at the forefront of the crackdown against DEI policies in corporate America. On November 25, Starbuck said on X that he had threatened Walmart executives that he would be doing a story exposing "wokeness" at the company and eviscerating it for its pro-LGBTQ or pro-diversity policies.
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