The GRAMMY® Awards are one of music’s biggest nights, and for the past three years, we’ve hosted an annual pre-GRAMMY party to celebrate the unique connections we can make between entertainment consumers and their media and purchase habits. The event brings together industry executives and influencers across media, entertainment, sports, consumer, brands and retail.
This year’s event also served to spotlight our relationship and ongoing initiatives with GLAAD supporting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community. And GLAAD’s vice president of programs, Zeke Stokes, was on hand to accept a charitable donation from Nielsen on behalf of attendees.
Nielsen and GLAAD have worked together since 2008, and recently, through Harris Poll (a Nielsen company), collected data for GLAAD’s second Accelerating Acceptance report, which explores sentiments about LGBT people across the nation.
“Nielsen and the Harris Poll have been proud to support GLAAD with their on-going initiatives and commitment to justice and equality for the LGBT community. GLAAD has broken new ground in human rights and understanding the barriers to social acceptance. We will continue to support organizations like GLAAD who promote acceptance of all the diverse segments and the value of all voices in our multi-cultural society,” said Matt O’Grady, CEO of Nielsen Catalina Solutions and executive sponsor of the Nielsen PRIDE employee resource group.
The 2016 Accelerating Acceptance report reveals Americans’ perceptions about LGBT people after a historic 2015 that included the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on marriage equality and what TIME Magazine called the “transgender tipping point.” The findings were a bit shocking—most notably that half (50%) of all non-LGBT Americans are now under the false and potentially dangerous impression that ‘gay people have the same rights as everybody else.’ The report also shed light on a lack of awareness around LGBT violence and youth homelessness, with over a quarter (27%) of non-LGBT respondents stating that violence against transgender people is not a serious problem and more than a third (37%) saying that homelessness is not a serious problem.
Nielsen’s resources were instrumental in revealing this state of LGBT perception in the U.S., which provides strong indicators of where GLAAD’s work is most needed.
“Nielsen has been a longtime committed partner to GLAAD’s important work,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO and president of GLAAD. “The data they gather for our flagship report is crucial to the organization’s mission and helps us better understand what needs to be done in order to combat complacency and accelerate acceptance.”
“Nielsen Cares, our Harris Poll and Nielsen PRIDE employee resource group are proud to provide our expertise and talent to shape a world where people can be their true selves and make a difference in their families, workplaces and communities,” said Leslie Krohn, senior vice president, public affairs, Nielsen.
