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How Television Changed The Way America Viewed LGBT People

"In order to protect our future, we have to remember our past," says "Out of the Box" producer Wilson Cruz.

We've come a long way since Ellen came out in primetime.

Producers are currently crowd-funding to support the completion of Out of the Box, a documentary series about how LGBT images on television have influenced our culture.

“I’ve always believed that the way that we’ve been able to change the world as LGBT people was through the power of our stories," says Out of the Box executive producer Wilson Cruz. "And what bigger and better medium than television?"

My So-Called Life/ABC

About 40 people have been interviewed for the series so far, including Laverne Cox, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jussie Smollett. Cruz, who played an openly gay character on the short-lived '90s series My So-Called Life, hopes to interview at least a dozen more public figures who have played a major part in the history of LGBT representation on TV.

The Out of the Box fundraising page notes that while LGBT visibility on television helped lead to marriage equality, Donald Trump, "America's first reality TV president," is now using the same medium to threaten our civil rights.

GLAAD’s most recent “Where We Are on TV” report, which annually assesses representation of LGBT characters on primetime television, found that there's a record number of LGBT characters on broadcast and streaming series since GLAAD began its research 21 years ago.

"In order to protect our future, we have to remember our past—how we got here, the stories that changed our world," says Cruz. "And from that, future generations will learn how to continue this struggle and win those battles."

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