Gay-positive portrayals in media are often cited as one of the reasons for increasing acceptance of LGBT people in society and the increasing willingness of marketers to reach out to our community. As the LGBT community has grown, our advocacy organizations have become increasingly adept at honoring those portrayals.
One of the best known LGBT honors events are the GLAAD Media Awards – the annual multi-city fundraiser for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation that honors “outstanding mainstream media outlets for projects and representations that raise the bar for increasingly fair, accurate and inclusive images in their respective media industries.”
Wait a minute. “Mainstream media projects?” Yes. As I was reminded in the past week by several blog posts, GLAAD only recognizes “mainstream” media in these awards meaning that LGBT networks such as LOGO and here! and LGBT publications such as The Advocate and OUT (not to mention all of the local/regional publications that comprise a big part of the LGBT media) are not eligible for their honors.
This policy has drawn criticism in the past, but this year it’s taken on a different tone with here! and others condemning GLAAD for their exclusion of gay and lesbian outlets from consideration. The argument here! and others make is that excluding gay press is unfair and discriminatory because it holds “mainstream” media to a different standard than the gay press.
GLAAD issued a press release in response to these criticisms in which the organization explains that they previously included gay press in their honors but they suspended the practice because LGBT outlets did not feel their work should be the subject of criticism and many did not submit nominations. GLAAD also points out that one of their highest honors – the Barbara Gittings Award – recognizes “those who have made substantial contributions to the development of LGBT media” and has been given to many of the most high-profile LGBT outlets and publications in the past (including here! and others).
What do you think? Does honoring only “mainstream” media encourage greater acceptance of gay-positive portrayals among the outlets that the majority of Americans turn to for news and information? Does excluding gay press outlets from eligibility establish different standards for different media?
I can see where the gay press is coming from and I believe they have a point. If you’re going to give out an LGBT media award, you should make all media eligible, including LGBT media. A level playing field means you apply the same standards to everyone. And I think we should apply that criteria to awards, too. Separate but equal isn’t equal.
Of course applying that standard means that this should be an open competition. That means the gay press needs to be willing – and able – to compete. And that means the quality of LGBT outlet and publication programming must exceed the quality of the “mainstream” media to be honored with awards. That’s often a higher hurdle to leap, but it’s an important one. If you want it to be an open competition, then you’d better be willing to face the consequences. In this case, I think competition will benefit everyone with higher-quality programming that will likely result from the more equitable playing field.
It will be interesting to see if this controversy flares up again with the next awards event in Los Angeles later this month. In the meantime, if you’d like to check out the winners from New York last week or read about the upcoming LA, San Francisco and South Florida events, visit the GLAAD Web site by clicking here. And, in an ironic twist, you can also watch coverage of the awards on LOGO on April 21.
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