A newly formed organization, Out in Hollywood, has launched its inaugural Out Loud List of the best unproduced pilot scripts that center on queer experiences and/or are written by queer writers. Deadline broke the news.
The group was founded out of necessity and a sense of responsibility by producers and executives. According to their website, the group’s goal is that “the list will not only highlight the types of queer stories we want to see on screen but also lead toward development deals, new representation, and in general a better awareness of the quality- and diversity-at-large of our community.” The objectives of the list are to “widen the parity of non-normative storytellers in our business” and to “improve the accessibility of these creators.”
The Out Loud List is their first initiative, its release timed to coincide with Pride Month. According to Deadline, it was curated “based on feedback from members of the queer Hollywood community who were asked to nominate the favorite script they had read over the past year that meets the criteria,” similar to how The Black List and WeForShe operate. Following a blind evaluation process, and ranking scripts using metrics such as the Vito Russo test developed by GLAAD, Ten scripts were finally selected.
Titles included in the 2021 edition include Barbara Friend’s “Sugar,” a portrait of of three adopted siblings reeling from the loss of their mother and facing an uncertain future for their New Orleans bakery, and Naomi Iwamoto’s “Rice, Fish, and La Croix,” the story of a young doctor who decides to come out to her Japanese family.
Execs Ameet Shukla of One Community, Logan Kriete of Escape Artists, Rebecca Vail of Peacock, Renee Reiff of Chaos Machine, and independent producer Maija Gustin all sit on the group’s founding board.
“As an industry, we need to do better, and realize that the queer community encompasses a host of diverse, intersectional stories,” Kriete and Reif commented. “We know that amplifying queer voices—even if just taking a general meeting—ultimately leads to better representation broadly. It leads to a more nuanced and inclusive vision of being a human, to new ways of seeing the world, and to a seat at the table.”
The list comes on the heels of, and was motivated by, the recently published open letter from WGA West’s LGBTQ+ Writers Committee that urged those with power in the industry to employ more writers from the LGBTQ+ community and do more to combat discrimination. The letter revealed that 22 percent of surveyed members of the Committee had reported being turned down for opportunities with the justification that “the writer’s room ‘already has an LGBTQ+ writer.’”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the screen, GLAAD’s Where We Are On TV report for the 2020-21 season found that of the 773 series regular characters scheduled to appear on broadcast scripted primetime TV this season, just 9.1 percent are LGBTQ characters — a decrease from the previous year’s record percentage of 10.2 percent.
The Out Loud List is intended to be released annually. Out in Hollywood is working on hosting panels and arranging mentorship opportunities in the near future.
You can view the entire Out Loud List and find more information about the writers it spotlights on Out in Hollywood’s website.
