On May 21st, the GLAAD Media Institute hosted a workshop for Body Politic, a support group for people with COVID-19. The workshop, led by members of the GLAAD Media Institute team, taught the group skills on how to work with the media to tell their stories in safe, effective, and impactful ways.

Body Politic is a support group that serves as a resource for people who have tested positive for COVID-19, have symptoms of COVID-19, or are recovering from the virus. Body Politic was founded by Fiona Lowenstein (also EIC) and Sabrina Bleich (also Creative Director) and is hosted on a public Slack channel of 8,000 members from across 15 countries. There is still much to learn about the long-term health (and mental health) effects of COVID-19, and Body Politic offers support to those navigating the healing process.

The workshop provided trainees with a view of how the media industry works, best practices for storytelling, and methods to ensure that interviews are as informative and impactful as possible. The workshop also shared tips and tricks about using outlets such as blog posts and op-eds to share stories.

One trainee, Judy Kottick, shared her experience battling COVID-19 on the blog Kind Body. Judy writes about her perspective of being a therapist and coping with the illness: “As a therapist who has worked with people suffering all types of illness, grief and loss, I was still entirely unprepared for my own encounter with Covid-19,” she writes. “It was harrowing, endless and challenging to every facet of my being. And in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, KindBody has asked me to share which aspects of my knowledge and experience helped pull me through.” It is important to have people like Judy share their stories so that others will better understand different aspects of COVID-19.

The May 21st workshop between GLAAD and Body Politic ran in accordance with GLAAD’s ongoing mission to amplify the voices of the LGBTQ community and its allies, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit this link to read GLAAD’s growing collection of COVID-19 stories.

This article was originally published on the GLAAD website on May 27, 2020. It is reprinted here with permission.