U.S. basketball and soccer stars Sue Bird, and Megan Rapinoe have joined forces to launch a new production company aimed at using “underrepresented communities” to “move culture forward.”
The Olympian and the World Cup winner have announced their new company, A Touch More, to “bring a touch more understanding, connection, entertainment, and conversation to the evolving media landscape” by creating films and TV shows to advance the lives and stories of “underrepresented communities” such as gays, people of color, and women, according to Variety.
“As athletes, we know how powerful our platforms are and the impact we can have on the world,” Bird and Rapinoe said in a statement. “A Touch More is a manifestation of our values, and our desire to bring to the surface stories of those who shape and move culture forward. We’re incredibly excited for some of the projects we have in the works and can’t wait to share more about this next chapter.”
The production company plans to produce podcasts and scripted and unscripted streaming content.
Partnering with Bird’s TOGETHXR media and commerce company, the pair claim that they intend to change the fact that women’s sports only receives 10 percent of media coverage despite the fact that females make up 40 percent of all athletes.
“Megan and Sue both represent the power sport can have on culture,” said TOGETHXR co-founder and chief content officer, Jessica Robertson. “They also know the power of storytelling. It’s a dream come true for TOGETHXR to partner in bringing this studio to life. We can’t wait for the impact we will make together.”
Rapinoe and Bird’s new venture for “underrepresented communities” joins an already crowded field of other companies that have also formed to push the stories of the same “underrepresented communities.”
The number of LGBTQ-focused entertainment efforts has increased in the last decade. Only two months ago, for instance, a new all-gay streaming network called “DivaBox” launched with “100 hours of queer programming.” And as far back as 2019, Discovery Inc. unveiled Group Nine Media to “reprogram people’s minds” to push the LGBTQ agenda.
Sue Bird (L) of the Seattle Storm and soccer player Megan Rapinoe attend the WNBA All-Star Game 2019 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on July 27, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nevada. ( Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Disney has become somewhat notorious for pushing LGBTQ themes and characters into nearly every one of its TV shows, streaming series, and movies. Joining that effort, both Hallmark and Lifetime announced they were producing more gay films and TV shows, and Lifetime followed that up with its first Christmas show featuring a gay couple two years ago in 2020.
Even as far back as 2019, the number of gays on TV had exploded, according to the radical gay advocacy group GLAAD. At that time, ten percent of all TV characters were representatives of the LGBTQ sector. And this year, the group found that nearly twelve percent were gay.
Despite the claims of activists such as Bird and Rapinoe, there seems to be no lack of representation for those “underrepresented communities.”
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