As the LGBTQ+ community continues the fight to have key legislation passed in Congress, it also looks to continue to build influence and support for its social rights movement, according to Black News Channel (BNC) host Aisha Mills.
Mills, who will host an as-yet-named political-themed primetime news show for the 16 month-old African-American-targeted news channel, says that the community is closely watching developments surrounding the The Equality Act, which will make sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes in America. The legislation has passed in the House of Representatives but continues to languish in the Senate.
“We have to guilt them all,” she said in a Pride TV Summit interview. “It’s so much politics… but what we can do on the outside is continue to put pressure and just guilt the handful of Republican politicians who don’t want it to move forward. The vast majority of people in America support LGBTQ equality fundamentally as it relates to basic dignity and rights.”
Outside of Congress, Mills -- who served as the first African-American woman president of the Victory Fund LGBTQ political action group --says she is encouraged by the inroads the LGBTQ+ rights movement continues to make throughout society. She also dismissed criticism of the expanding acronyms such as LGBTQIA+ used to describe or define the community.
“We don’t need to try to distill down and create some singular uniformity in order to be a community and to reflect people,” she said. “Let’s name it all and claim it all because at the end of the day we identify ourselves for ourselves by ourselves and be respected in how we want to be acknowledged and addressed.”
BNC, which will air a June 22 Pride-themed special hosted by Mills, is currently in more than 52 million U.S. homes through distribution deals with Comcast (Xfinity), DirecTV, Charter Communications (Spectrum) and Dish Network. The network is also available through OTT services such as Roku TV, Tubi and Pluto TV.
Register here for the Pride TV Summit on Wednesday, June 23. Featured speakers will include Randy Rainbow, AMC Networks executive Blake Callaway and Black News Channel's Aisha Mills. Pride TV Leadership Awards recipients will include The CW.
