How to Send a Queer Creators Panel to SXSW

The panel will discuss the importance of supporting queer creators year-round, and you can vote to send the group to the iconic arts conference.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

August 20 2022 9:47 PM EST

May 31 2023 3:30 PM EST

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Clockwise from top left: Lex Barberio, Roberto Max Salas, Jacques Agbobly, and Baby Yors. Photos courtesy Young Hero.

An LGBTQ+ creators panel is in the running to appear at the 2023 SXSW Conference and Festivals, and the public has a chance to vote for the group.

The panel, "Pride365: Uniting Queer Creators With Brands," will be moderated by Roberto Max Salas, president of Young Hero, a cultural creators studio and creative agency. But it will be all about passing the mic to queer creator panelists to discuss the importance of brands supporting LGBTQ+ artists year-round. Those panelists are Lex Barberio, a nonbinary artist and photographer; Baby Yors, a queer Latin musician and entrepreneur and previous Out100 honoree; and Jacques Agbobly, the nonbinary founder of Black Boy Knits and a finalist for this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.

Many LGBTQ+ artists only see interest and support from brands during Pride month. With its Pride365 platform, an original initiative with ready-made opportunities for brands to support queer artists year-round, Young Hero is working to change this.

The panel seeks to make the points that supporting LGBTQ+ creators beyond June is a huge opportunity for brands to break through the Pride noise and work with artists who help define culture and supporting LGBTQ+ artists and their creativity doesn't require a symbol like the rainbow.