LATV’s Champions of Queer Authenticity in Media

This Pride month, LATV is proud to present our Top 20 list of influential people championing queer authenticity. Over the course of the month, we will be featuring five artists, five entrepreneurs, five media personalities, and five community leaders who are changing the narrative around queerness in culture today.

Our second category: MEDIA!

Denny Directo is Entertainment Tonight‘s only queer, Brown TV correspondent, and he says that’s his superpower. Variety‘s Marc Malkin not only covers trending queer stories, but lives his own queer story as well. Broadcast journalist and XSET owner Erin Ashley Simon bridges the communities she represents through gaming. At The Wrap, media personality on-the-rise Elijah Gil uses vulnerability to have impactful interviews. And Out Magazine‘s Editor-in-chief Daniel Reynolds reminds us that 2023 is a time to both celebrate queer identity and fight for the rights still under attack.

DENNY DIRECTO / The Trailblazer

Thirteen years ago, Denny Directo started at Entertainment Tonight as a production assistant. With a passion for entertainment and a personality for the red carpet, he made his imprint and climbed the ladder (sporting several iconic outfits along the way). He landed interviews with stars like Tom Hanks and Bad Bunny. And last year, he was promoted. Directo is now the news brand’s only Brown, queer TV correspondent.

“I’m Mexican, I’m also Pilipino, and I’m gay,” he says on season 9 of LATV’s The Q Agenda, “three things … [that] make me different. And that’s my superpower.”

Growing up in a small horse town, his queer light was dimmed. But over the years, he reclaimed his identity and now expresses it unapologetically on and off camera. Not only is he paving his own way, he’s making room at the table for Brown people, queer people, for generations to come.

MARC MALKIN / The First-to-Know

Variety’s Senior Culture & Events Editor Marc Malkin is a red-carpet staple. His experience as a broadcast journalist, host, and pop culture guru has made him one of the most sought-after voices in the Hollywood media landscape.

In 2018, he went public about being HIV-positive after his friend and media personality, Karl Schmid, did the same. Two years ago, while compiling stories for Variety’s pride issue, he posted on Instagram: “I love being a gay journalist and editor…Happy pride!” And in the last few months, he’s covered cover queer topics like how the Academy Museum will celebrate pride and why the new film docuseries, Historical Homos, has come at the perfect time.

Malkin wrote: “As LGBTQ education and books are being banned in states like Florida, Historical Homos can become a much-needed resource to fill gaps created by anti-queer legislation” (Variety).

Blending seriousness with a sense of humor, Malkin champions his own queer story while uplifting so many others.

ERIN ASHLEY SIMON / The Visualizer

Born to techie parents in New York City, Erin Ashley Simon started gaming as a kid to enjoy competitive fun with her brother. Later, as a broadcast journalist, she made e-sports part of her professional storytelling brand. As co-owner and Chief Culture Officer of XSET (a gaming lifestyle organization focused on the intersection of gaming and entertainment), Simon builds bridges between communities that have historically been left out of the conversation.

“[As] someone who’s a very visible face, I try to bring a lot of my heritage and my communities into the forefront with the work I do,” she says on LATV’s Blacktinidad.

She is dedicated to highlighting Black excellence and uplifting the Latine gaming experience. And recently, the organization was awarded for their contributions to the LGBTQ+ community.

“What happens…when you’re playing games [is] a reflection of society,” she says, “So, it starts with us fixing it in society for it to then translate into the internet.”

ELIJAH GIL / The Amplifier

“I’m a talker. I like to talk a lot,” Elijah Gil says on LATV’s Blacktinidad.

As a kid, he would ‘play Oprah’ and run around interviewing people. In college, he had his own radio show. Now, as a red-carpet correspondent and writer for The Wrap, Gil continues his childhood dream amplifying people’s stories, especially the journeys of those in Hollywood’s marginalized communities.

Even within New York’s large Dominican community, Gil understood what it meant to be ‘othered’ growing up. Being Afro-Latino in a predominantly white high school—on top of being gay and in the closet—gave him a personal set of identity hurdles to overcome. So, in interviews with stars like Jamie Lee Curtis or Stephanie Hsu, Gil makes himself vulnerable so they can do the same.

“A lot of journalists…focus on the clicks. For me, I focus on the humanity,” Gil says.

DANIEL REYNOLDS / The Advocate

As editor-in-chief of Out Magazine, Daniel Reynolds uplifts and carves out space for queer voices. In his own writing, Reynolds celebrates the magnitude of queer identity reflected on screen, on stage, and in music today. At the same time, not so coincidentally, he reminds us that queer rights are still under attack, and at new lengths.

Reynolds tells LATV at the 2023 GLAAD Awards: “I think that being queer has given my life meaning and purpose in ways that, when I was younger, I never thought I would find.”

Inspired by historic queer resilience, Reynolds uses the power of queer stories as fuel against homophobia and anti-queer legislation in today’s climate. This pride season, he adds: “there has been a real focus and a reminder of what we have to lose and also how much further we have to fight to really achieve equality.”

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Next week, stay tuned for the next phase of the list featuring queer entrepreneurs. For more Pride content, check out LATV queer on the LATV+ app!