|
On February 17th, 2000, a few Comedy Central employees hosted
an informal mixer at New York City's Chase bar for lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender employees of the MTV Networks.
Word of mouth spread and about fifty MTV Networks employees
showed up for an evening of cocktails and networking.
Recognizing the strong need for a gay professional networking
organization, a second event was planned for April 6th at
hell. This time the invitation was extended to colleagues
at several networks and studios and once again word spread
quickly. About one hundred and fifty LGBT professionals turned
up from a variety of networks and studios. A mailing list
was compiled at the event, and Out In Television & Film
was born.
Several more successful New York events followed, along with
the first emailed OTF Exchange on July 25th, 2000,
which included several job postings. OTF Exchange quickly
grew to a weekly publication that includes information about
events and member news.
In September OTF announced it was expanding to Los Angeles
and began posting information about LA jobs and events. The
first Los Angeles networking event was held on February 22,
2001 in Hollywood at the Beauty Bar. Since then OTF has operated
as a national organization regularly hosting events on both
coasts.
On April 24th, 2002, we first launched this web site to better
serve the needs of our members. The site originally contained
basic information about OTF and listings of useful online
connections. |
