Univision program features Latino gays and lesbians this weekend (9412)

The Univision television network's Sabado Gigante (Giant Saturday), the longest-running variety program on Spanish-language television, will lead its first-ever in-depth exploration and discussion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues on Saturday, July 26, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time. The high-rated show is broadcast both in the United States and throughout Latin America.

According to a press release from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Sabado Gigante discussion will feature a diverse group of panelists, including Cesar Cigliutti and Marcelo Suntheim, the first same-sex first couple to have been joined under Buenos Aires's new civil unions law; Monica Taher, people-of-color media director for GLAAD; Ron "Saul" Brenesky, board member of the Unity Coalition of Miami-Dade; Rodrigo Gomez, an openly gay cast member from the Mexican edition of the reality show Big Brother; Martin Ornelas-Quintero, executive director of the National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organization, or LLEGO; and Mexico City activist Tito Vasconcelos.

The discussion will open with footage from Cigliutti and Suntheim's civil union ceremony in Buenos Aires last week.

"We have been working throughout the past year to help Sabado Gigante's producers present a more accurate, less stereotypical view of our community--including working with New York's Mano a Mano coalition to successfully persuade the producers to drop an offensively stereotypical character from the show," said Taher. "GLAAD is thrilled to see Sabado Gigante take such a huge positive step forward by presenting a discussion of the reality of what it means to be LGBT and Latina/Latino to such a vast audience."

The show "has not always presented gays in a favorable light, with extreme stereotypes often used for laughs and punch lines," said Herb Sosa, president of the Unity Coalition of Miami-Dade, a grassroots initiative offering leadership on issues that concern the Hispanic LGBTQ and other minority communities across Florida. "This gives us the opportunity to show a more balanced and positive image to the world."

Find out more at the Sabado Gigante Web site.