Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly lesbian press secretary, hosted Ilene Chaiken, Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig and Leisha Hailey at Tuesday’s briefing
BY NIC CROSARA, IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM (@KATEOMOENNIG)
Each year Lesbian Visibility Week (LVW), which was founded by DIVA Publisher Linda Riley, grows bigger and bigger. And to mark this year’s annual observation and celebration Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly lesbian press secretary, hosted The L Word’s Ilene Chaiken, Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig and Leisha Hailey to Tuesday’s briefing.
At the podium, Jean-Pierre said that she sees “every day how important visibility and representation are.” And commended the gamechanging show sharing that “As a young queer woman of color, I felt alone and sometimes invisible,” as she introduced the cast. “For so many people in our community, The L Word’s impact cannot be understated.”
She also shared a personal story of going to watch the recording of The L Word: Generation Q’s season three finale and the #Tibette wedding saying the moment “meant so much to queer women across the country.”
Ilene Chaiken said the group was thankful to President Joe Biden for “giving us the first out lesbian press secretary who represents hope and possibility for so many people young and a bit older.”
And she added, “We, too, accomplished a few firsts by bringing our stories into homes and communities across the country and around the world.”
Jean-Pierre, Ilene and Leisha condemned the bills we are currently seeing in the US which target transgender youth and state-led efforts to ban books with LGBTQIA themes and characters.
“Visibility is not just the act of being seen. It is the ability to see,” Leisha said. “So to the librarian in Texas, advocating to keep books with LGBTQIA themes on the shelves, we see you. To the LGBTQI people leading their communities as rabbis, pastors and ministers, we see you. To the LGBTQIA community in Missouri about to lose their gender-affirming care, we see you.”
You can watch the full briefing here:
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