Philanthropist honors 20th year of gay newsmag “In The Life” with $1 million

New York philanthropist Henry van Ameringen is donating $1 million to In The Life Media to honor of the 20th anniversary of pubTV’s longtime gay newsmagazine In The Life, he writes in a column today (March 23) on Huffington Post. He writes of first seeing the program in 1992: “At the time, the show was more focused on entertainment; it wasn’t until a few years later that it became a newsmagazine. The simple fact that there was a television program, airing on public television stations around the country, that represented LGBT people in such a genuine and accurate manner was stunning, and even more so that it had been produced by a tiny staff on a threadbare budget.” He soon became a key funder. “And in the past 20 years the stories that have been told have had a tremendous impact, creating the social change and momentum we now see toward full equality,” he writes. Here’s a look at the show in 1997 from Current’s archives.