Mon Schafter: As a proud queer person and the Content Lead of ABCQueer, this week’s news that the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and WorldPride will be broadcast on the ABC from 2022-2024 is one of the most exciting moments of my career. You don’t have to be queer to appreciate Mardi Gras or pride events – LGBTQIA+ stories are just human stories that we’re all connected to through family members, friends, colleagues or even teammates — and I can’t wait to see these diverse human stories on the ABC’s most mainstream platforms. Last year, after reporting for 7.30 for nearly eight years, I stepped away from more traditional news to help kickstart ABCQueer – a content experiment aimed specifically at young LGBTQIA+ Australians on Instagram. Growing up in the 90s, I rarely saw queer women and gender non-conforming people in the media and it took me many years to embrace my identity. I saw ABCQueer as an opportunity to help increase the visibility of all sorts of queer folks so that young people, no matter who they are, would never feel alone. Many people assume ABCQueer was my idea, but it actually came from someone who isn’t gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex or even asexual! It came from someone I consider one of our community’s greatest allies. Omar Samad is a content innovation producer with the ABC’s Content Ideas Lab.