GLAAD Makes Important And Exciting Announcement — A New President
GLAAD, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has just announced a new president after months of a formal executive search, and the Board of Directors has awarded to post to Herndon Graddick. If the name is familiar to you, it should be. Graddick has been GLAAD’s Vice President of Programs and Communications since 2010, and is responsible for many excellent achievements, including “Stand Up For Ellen,” GLAAD’s response to the One Million Moms boycott of J.C. Penney, and GLAAD’s recent Commentator Accountability Project (CAP) which tracks comments from more than three dozen anti-gay pundits like Maggie Gallagher and Tony Perkins. Graddick also is responsible for furthering understanding on LGBT issues, as he did in the Roland Martin incident that began over Super Bowl weekend and the Miss Universe attempts to prohibit a transgender contestant from entering. Graddick also partnered with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) on the “I AM: Trans People Speak†video series. He takes the reins from acting president Mike Thompson.
That GLAAD would choose an internal candidate after months of a formal external search speaks volumes about Graddick’s abilities and impact on the organization and on the LGBT community. Graddick has helped to hold the organization together through challenging times and helped it emerge into one that is on-point, respected, and impactful.
“GLAAD’s work to share positive stories about LGBT people and hold the media accountable for providing a platform to anti-LGBT activists and their rhetoric is crucial in our movement today,” Graddick told The New Civil Rights Movement, via email. “I look forward to working with our staff, partner organizations, bloggers and LGBT media to continue this culture changing work.”
In a statement, Graddick added:
Right now GLAAD and our partners in the LGBT movement are making a significant difference at a time when a difference needs to be made. I look forward to working with our dedicated staff to create a culture where there is a welcoming and respected space for LGBT Americans. GLAAD’s work with the media to inspire Americans to speak out against anti-LGBT actions and support equality is needed today more than ever.
“Herndon is already a well-respected leader within the LGBT movement, and we believe will be a visionary and strategic leader for GLAAD’s culture-changing work,” Sheri Fults, National Co-Chair of the Board of Directors, said in a statement accompanying the announcement:
Herndon is the current Vice President of Programs and Communications at GLAAD, a position he assumed in 2010. In his role, he has lead GLAAD’s media initiatives and oversees the organization’s National & Local News; Entertainment; People of Color; Religion, Faith & Values; Advertising; and Spanish-Language Media programs. Under his leadership, GLAAD has engaged in numerous highly visible and impactful campaigns including ‘Stand Up For Ellen,’ which prompted the group One Million Moms – a project of the American Family Association – to end their call for J.C. Penney to fire Ellen DeGeneres as its new spokesperson because she is gay. Herndon also oversaw GLAAD’s work on the Commentator Accountability Project – an initiative launched in March to highlight the extreme rhetoric of anti-LGBT activists who currently appear in national news outlets. He is leading efforts with the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) on the “I AM: Trans People Speak†video series as well as with film director Brett Ratner to develop a series of videos with GLAAD featuring high-profile celebrities and public figures speaking out for LGBT equality. Herndon has also put resources behind GLAAD’s work to share stories of LGBT people of color and allies with African American media, sports media, and Spanish-language news outlets, among others.
Prior to his work at GLAAD, Herndon served as the Executive Producer of the Global Observatory, a media and communications effort which aimed to bring public awareness to the climate change crisis. He also served as Supervising Producer at E! Networks and the day-of-air news division director at CURRENT TV, the youth-oriented news and entertainment network created by former Vice President Al Gore. As a producer at CNN, Herndon also contributed to the creation of daily primetime programming such as “Paula Zahn Now,” “Anderson Cooper 360,” and “Live from the Headlines.”
Graddick, who has extensive experience in the media industry, was a producer for CNN and E! Networks, and was a director for Current TV. His GLAAD bio also mentions:
Graddick has also put resources behind GLAAD’s work to share stories of LGBT people of color and allies with African American media, sports media, and Spanish-language news outlets, among other areas.
Graddick previously served as GLAAD’s Deputy Director of Media Programs. Graddick successfully led GLAAD’s efforts to file a complaint with the FCC against the anti-gay Spanish-language talk show “Jose Luis Sin Censura,” and remove anti-gay language from Universal Pictures’ 2011 film trailer for “The Dilemma.” Graddick also oversaw successful efforts to create a partnership with the NBA and the Los Angeles Lakers following the use of an anti-gay slur by Kobe Bryant.
Graddick comes to GLAAD after serving as the Executive Producer of the Global Observatory, a media and communications effort conceived by former President of Costa Rica, Jose Maria Figueres, and Clinton Administration advisor, Aimee Christensen, and which aims to raise public awareness around the climate change crisis.
Recently, Graddick served as a Supervising Producer at E! Networks. Prior to E!, Graddick was the first strategic programming hire for CURRENT TV, the youth-oriented news and entertainment network created by former Vice President Al Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt. At CURRENT, Graddick served as day-of-air news division director.
Related:Â
GLAAD Adds NOM And Pat Robertson To New Commentator Accountability Project
GLAAD Announces New Project To Hold Anti-Gay Pundits Accountable
Roland Martin And GLAAD To Meet, Talk
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
