LGBT Activist Donates $1 Million to In the Life Media

A nationally televised newsmagazine aimed towards the LGBT community received a generous donation from a gay rights activist last week.
A nationally televised newsmagazine aimed towards the LGBT community received a generous donation from a gay rights activist last week.

Henry van Ameringen gave $1 million to In the Life Media the organization said in a statement. In the Life said that they would use $100,000 to match and increase contributions.

"Henry's unprecedented gift is transformative," said In The Life Media Executive Director Michelle Kristel. "It allows us to expand into new and emerging media technologies, broaden the scope of our community outreach and marketing initiatives and continue doing what we have done so successfully for the past twenty years: tell the stories, cover the issues and advance equality for LGBT people."

In the Life describes van Ameringen, 82, as a "longtime philanthropist to LGBT an HIV/AIDS organizations."

For more than 20 years In the Life's producers have created programs that cover a number of topics that pertain to the LGBT community. These shows run on about 250 public television stations, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal also points out that van Ameringen has been supporting the organization since its early days.

The philanthropist hopes that his large contribution will bring other people into In the Life. "If I make it tempting enough, other people will join," he said.

van Ameringen has been donating to HIV/AIDS and LGBT organizations since 1987. He has also created the van Ameringen Foundation, an organization that helps people with mental health issues. He is a co-chairman of the board of directors of In the Life Media and a board member of Fountain House -- a New York based organization for people with mental illness. He was also the vice president of International Flavors and Fragrances, which was founded by his father Arnold Louis van Ameringen.

"I thought that if we could expose more people to average homosexuals it would be a good choice," van Ameringen said of why he became involved with In the Life Media. He added that there are more gay characters on television shows than there were in the past but "they are white, handsome and 21 which is really not typical of most of us." He told the Journal that these characters are "not really solving the problem."

Van Ameringen said that there is "never sufficient progress" when it comes to LGBT issues but hopes to see the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and to see non-discrimination laws improved.

"Progress would look like people not beating up gays in the street, for example."