How the two gay CEOs of Paramount Global are blazing a trail and helping the next generation

So it’s perhaps even more striking that on Fortune’s first LGBTQ+ Leaders list, which ranks the world’s best CEOs who also happen to be LGBTQ+, two are making strides as gay co-CEOs.

George Cheeks, CEO of CBS, works alongside fellow gay Chris McCarthy, CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment, with Brian Robbins, all co-CEOs of Paramount Global, all named to the role earlier this year.

Dave Bennett/Getty Images for Paramount+

Paramount Global (No. 142 on the Fortune 500) has been behind several successful LGBTQ+ TV and movies in recent years, including Fellow Travelers, the Elton John biopic Rocketman and RuPaul’s Drag Race.

But the history of the gay media scene goes back much further than the days of Viacom, including TV pioneers such as Pedro Zamora, one of the first gay men to talk about the AIDS on-screen same-sex commitment ceremony on MTV’s The Real World in 1994.

This kind of media representation, both new and old, is a lifeline for LGBTQ+ youth around the world who watch TV to find themselves in cities where being gay is still difficult. None of this is lost on either Cheeks or McCarthy.

“When I was growing up, there were no LGBTQ+ people in my life or around,” McCarthy says. Wealth. “Television provided the only way to escape, to see myself and start dreaming of a different world.”

It’s an understanding that both co-CEOs have in mind, as Cheeks says, “Once you know someone personally, media representation is the number one way to foster empathy and understanding of differences.”

If you want your media production to do justice to communities marginalized by any medium, you need to start the work within.

A common theme among the leaders I spoke with at the inauguration Fortune’s List of LGBTQ+ Leaders addresses business accessibility for people of all backgrounds. This is also true at Paramount Global:

“Being the first person in my family to graduate from college and with both of my parents working in factories, I felt insecure about my working-class background,” says McCarthy. wealth.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Realizing early in his career that there was a lack of hiring a wide range of talent, he created programs aimed at finding people from marginalized communities.

“The young men in our All-Star program come in looking as nervous and scared as I have felt many times, and yet they leave as our best and most valuable interns who are the first people we go to when hiring for jobs with full time.”

Cheeks also knows these challenges firsthand. “As a biracial man, I’ve always felt an extra layer of vulnerability. Early in my career, when I was trying to find a way out, I kept a James Baldwin quote at my desk. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

That’s why finding an LGBTQ+ mentor of color to share his experiences with has had a profound impact on him. An approach he clearly wants to pay attention to as he discusses “being true to who you are and leading with authenticity.”

He admits it’s not always easy. “Before going to work, a colleague would ask me a personal question, and my whole body would freeze. I had anxiety and shame about being in the closet and it was difficult to connect with people because I always kept my distance.”

A common phrase banding around DEI teams is that equality is not a destination, but rather an ongoing journey that you must continue to work towards. It is something on the minds of both leaders. Both believe that an intentional mindset of diversity, equity and inclusion is the way to make Paramount Global’s values ​​manifest. Something McCarthy sees as more than a business need, but a social responsibility.

Knowing that to attract the kind of LGBTQ+ creators who can create authentic characters and on-screen representation in their LGBTQ+ TV and film in a way that doesn’t seem performative, “it has to come from real understanding and experience.”

In an age where everyone is looking for the next one Heartstopperhit Netflix series that broke cultural barriers and generated the author an estimated $12 million in graphic novel sales alone, leads like Cheeks and McCarthy are a welcome step forward. And with continued support for the next generation under their leadership, Paramount Global is positioned to reap the rewards in the future.

Read more: