Ari Drennen is the LGBTQ Program Director at Media Matters, where she leads the organization’s work monitoring right-wing media and disinformation targeting LGBTQ people. Her work focuses on the intersection of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, political extremism, and news coverage of gender and sexuality. Ari’s research and commentary have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and Democracy Now!, and she appears in the documentary Heightened Scrutiny alongside Chase Strangio, Elliot Page, and Laverne Cox. Outside of Media Matters, she is the author of the poetry collection Thoughts on Weightlessness and a credited songwriter on Ekko Astral’s Pink Balloons, which Pitchfork named the No. 1 Rock Album of 2024. Ari holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Middlebury College.