This past Saturday, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) honored another set of celebrities and influencers in seven of this year's 41 media categories at the 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre presented by IBM and ABSOLUT® Vodka.
Hosted by performer Miss Coco Peru with performances by Cheyenne Jackson and Jennifer Holliday, the night was filled with recognizable individuals who are daily using their roles or careers in the media to bring greater awareness and understanding about the LGBT community to the public as a whole. Those recipients at the LA awards include:
-
Kathy Griffin, who received the Vanguard Award for continuing advocacy of same-sex marriage and the LGBT community around the world.
-
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church, who has and continues to make a difference for the LGBT community, specifically among religious audiences, who received the Stephen F. Kolzak Award from Dustin Lance Black, Cleve Jones, and GLAAD President Neil Giuliano.
Both The L Word and FunnyorDie.com’s Prop 8: The Musical, which had one million hits on its first day, received special recognition awards. The L Word won the Outstanding Drama Media Award from GLAAD in 2005.
The ladies of Wisteria Llane took home the Outstanding Comedy Series Award, as Desperate Housewives featured LGBT characters, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Megan Mullally and others accepted the Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without an LGBT character) Award for "Unidentified Funk" from The New Adventures of Old Christine on CBS.
Out’s 2009 No. 2 most powerful LGBT individual, Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi were recognized with the Outstanding Talk Show Episode for the "Ellen & Portia's Wedding Day" segment.
Univision received the Outstanding Spanish-Language TV Journalism – Newsmagazine for its segments "A juzgar por las apariencias" y "En otro cuerpo," which covered the murder of transgender teenager Angie Zapata.
Milk took home the Outstanding Film – Wide Release award, with director Gus Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks accepting award.
GLAAD also announced that Brothers & Sisters received the award for Outstanding Drama Series and Secrets of the Trade by Jonathan Tolins received the award for Outstanding Los Angeles Theater production.
The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives. The final GLAAD Media Award event will by May 9 in San Francisco.
I applaud GLAAD (especially former Out Front blogger Rich Ferraro), the award recipients and the many other LGBT individuals and allies who daily make the decision to raise their voice and engage people of all types in dialogue about our community. They set an example that we all can replicate in our local communities.
We will be sure to cover the San Francisco awards in May. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to keep Out Front readers up to date on GLAAD’s many initiatives, as I follow them on Twitter (@glaad) and their blog.
Photo Credit: (l. – r.) Director Gus Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, producer Dan Jinks and producer Bruce Cohen accepted the award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release for Milk at the 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles, April 18, 2009. © 2009 Jeff Vespa/WireImage. All Rights Reserved.
SUBSCRIBE