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.
A Pennsylvania school board canceled an appearance by Maulik Pancholy at a local middle school's anti-bullying assembly due to concerns over his "lifestyle."
The Cumberland Valley School District school board voted unanimously to cancel the gay actor's scheduled May 22 appearance at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, a town of 9,000 people in the state's center, just 10 miles outside Harrisburg.
Pancholy, who played Jonathan on the hit TV show 30 Rock, Sanjay in Weeds, and voiced the character of Baljeet for Disney's Phineas & Ferb, is also an author of novels for young adults, including The Best at It, the story of a gay Indian-American boy and his experience dealing with bullying in a small Midwestern town, and Nikhil Out Loud, about a group of eighth-grade theater kids rising up against homophobia in their community.
Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a bill seeking to block the ability of transgender youth to access gender-affirming treatments.
The bill, passed largely along party lines by both chambers of the Republican-led Legislature, prohibits any entity receiving state funds from providing or subsidizing gender-affirming treatments for minors.
It also prohibits individuals or entities receiving state funds, or state employees in their official capacity, from encouraging youth who are suffering from gender dysphoria to pursue either medical or social transition.
Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, has been named to Time Magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People of 2024," marking a significant honor for the head of the nation's largest LGBTQ rights organization.
Writing for the magazine, Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD, praises Robinson, the first Black queer woman to lead HRC in its history, as having "a vision for a more equal and just world that, paired with her talent for building coalitions across all intersections, has taken the LGBTQ+ movement -- and the larger social-justice movement -- by storm when it is most needed."
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