Tag Archives: GLAAD Media Awards

GLAAD announces nominees for 24th annual media awards

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GLAAD announced the nominees for its 24th annual media awards. Presentation of awards takes place on March 16 in New York, April 20 in Los Angeles and May 11 in San Francisco.

Among this year’s nominees are Frank Ocean, Adam Lambert, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, ParaNorman, Cloud Atlas, Keep the Lights On, The New Normal, Smash, Modern Family, How to Survive a Plague and The Amazing Race.

In the category of Outstanding Film — Wide Release, the nominees are Cloud Atlas, ParaNorman, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Your Sister’s Sister.

Outstanding comedy series recognizes five shows from network TV — The New Normal (NBC), Glee (Fox), Go On (ABC) Modern Family (NBC) and Happy Endings (ABC).

Outstanding TV movie or mini-series is all cable — American Horror Story: Asylum (FX), Hit and Miss (DirecTV) and Political Animals (USA).

Continue reading “GLAAD announces nominees for 24th annual media awards” »

—  David Taffet

And the nominees for the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards are …not Dallas Voice

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Today, GLAAD announced its 23rd annual media nominees covering ground from movies to television to journalism. Texas didn’t get a whole lot of love this time (does it ever?), but it did get in. For the Outstanding TV Journalism – News Magazine category, local NBC affiliate KXAS TV-5 snagged a nomination for its “GLBT in Texas” Spotlight DFW series which even had a segment devoted to the Dallas Voice. So, we’re kinda in.

For Outstanding Music Artist, San Antonio’s Girl in a Coma is in fine company with fellow nominees, MEN, Lady Gaga, Hunx and his Punx and Beverly McClellan. GIAC was nominated for its 2011 release, Exits and All the Rest.

The A-List: Dallas did not get a nod for Outstanding Reality Program.

For a complete list of nominees, click here or watch the trailer after the jump.

—  Rich Lopez

What’s Brewing: Joel Burns, Nikki Peet accept GLAAD awards; firefighters fired for nude pics

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Joel Burns and Lawrence O’Donnell, via Facebook

Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns and Bianca “Nikki” Peet, a student at Corpus Christi’s Flour Bluff High School, were among those honored Sunday night during the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles. Burns, husband J.D. Angle and MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell accepted the award for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment, for their interview on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. Meanwhile, the 17-year-old Peet received a Special Recognition Award for her efforts to organize a Gay Straight Alliance at her school. We’ll post more photos from the event as soon as they are available.

2. Who would have thought Oklahoma would be home to the first transgender person elected to lead a statewide Young Democrats group? Trans attorney Brittany Novotny, who challenged bigoted State Rep. Sally Kern in November, on Saturday was elected president of Young Democrats of Oklahoma.

3. Two firefighters in Victoria, Texas have been fired for creating a montage of photos of nude men that was posted at their station. According to The Victoria Advocate, the montage included a scantily clad crotch shot, a shot of one nude man kissing another nude man’s body, a cartoon of two men kissing, a shot of one nude man looming over another with his hands on his shoulders, a bare-chested man,  a shot of a man’s scantly clad rear end, and face shots of two Hollywood actors. The city isn’t releasing details of the incident, other than to say that the employees violated the city’s conduct policy. One expert noted that the incident could be an example of anti-gay harrassment:

“Sometimes in a case where straight people harass homosexual people, it may be an attempt to create an ‘us’ and ‘them’ separation; a clumsy or immature attempt to demonstrate their own ‘straightness’ through not-so-subtle intimidation,” University of Houston-Victoria criminal justice professor Casey Akins told the newspaper. “Straight on gay harassment is under-reported and when it is reported, it is often not necessarily classified as ‘sexual harassment in the workplace.”

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: Tea party mixes in social issues; details in anti-gay stoning; GLAAD Media Awards

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. Surprise!!! The tea party in Texas isn’t concerned only with fiscal issues, according to The Dallas Morning News (subscription required). Turns out, it also contains its fair share of homophobes, racists and misogynists: “Tea parties arose out of concern for liberty and fiscal issues,” says tea-bagging State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford. “However, you have a lot of people in the tea party groups in Texas that are focused on abortion, defense of marriage.” So let me see if I understand this — the tea party in Texas wants to shrink government if it means lower taxes for rich people, but wants to expand government if it means denying rights to minority groups? How convenient.

2. A 28-year-old murder suspect in Pennsylvania told authorities he killed his elderly victim by beating him with rocks because the Bible says homosexuals should be stoned to death. John Joe Thomas said he murdered 70-year-old Murray Joseph Seidman after the older man made sexual advances toward him. In fact, though, the two had been close companions and Thomas had been named executor and sole beneficiary of Seidman’s will. They met when Thomas was a patient at a psychiatric ward where Seidman worked. Thomas had recently been trying to get more money from Seidman, according to the victim’s brother. And Thomas became a suspect in Seidman’s murder after being picked up on other charges — indecent exposure, open lewdness, and disorderly conduct.

3. Russell Simmons and Ricky Martin were among those honored at the GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday in New York. Martin, who finally came out last March, took home the Vito Russo Award for promoting equality. Watch video of his acceptance speech below. For a full list of award winners, go here.

—  John Wright

News flash: Gays more humane than straights

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The Humane Society of the United States presents the Genesis Awards, similar to the GLAAD Media Awards, to recognize outstanding presentations of the humane treatment of animals. And it’s no surprise — at least not to me and the gay vegans I know — that gay-run businesses and gay-themed shows figure prominently in this year’s finalists.

Among them: How to Train Your Dragon is up for best feature film (it’s produced by DreamWorks, which is owned by gay mogul David Geffen); True Blood is up for best dramatic series (created by gay Oscar winner Alan Ball and with plenty o’ queer vamps, pictured); the Sid Caesar Comedy Award is between gay-friendly shows The Colbert Report, The Simpsons and The Daily Show; and TV newsmagazine faces off gay host Anderson Cooper of AC360 again lesbian host Jane Velez-Mitchell of Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell. And the schmancy Wyler Award goes to Kristin Davis of Sex and the City for her work bringing awareness to orphaned elephants. (It’s such a Charlotte thing to worry about orphaned elephants). Previous winners of the Wyler Award include Ellen DeGeneres and Portia Di Rossi.

The awards will be presented March 19 in Los Angeles.

—  Arnold Wayne Jones

GLAAD marks 25 years

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DERRIK J. LANG | AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES — The gay advocacy group GLAAD is happy to be turning 25 years old.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation celebrated its anniversary Friday night, Dec. 3, with a swanky cocktail party at the Harmony Gold Theatre in Los Angeles. Chaz Bono, Jean Smart, Amber Heard and Ed Begley Jr. were among the celebrity attendees who toasted the group, which focuses on how lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks are presented in the media.

“We’ve made great progress in these media capitals,” said Jarrett Barrios, president of GLAAD. “Beyond Hollywood, beyond New York, between these blue states, right at this nation’s red center, we have miles to go. How far do we still have to go to ensure that an environment of respect exists for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people?”

GLAAD was first formed in 1985 in New York to protest the New York Post’s coverage of AIDS. The organization went on to push for several changes throughout the media, such as the inclusion of a same-sex couple on the viewer-voted wedding contest on NBC’s Today show and modifications to how gays are referred to in The Associated Press Stylebook.

The group now annually holds the GLAAD Media Awards, which actor Steven Weber called the “gayer Oscars,” and releases the “Where We Are on TV” report, which tracks LGBT characters on network shows. This year’s report found that there were 23 gay and bisexual characters on scripted network TV out of a total of 600, up 3 percent from last season.

“The steady stream of negative portrayals and censorship of gay and lesbian lives on film and in television has given way to much more realistic and life-affirming depictions, such as this year’s The Kids Are All Right and TV’s Glee,” said Richard Jennings, a former president of GLAAD who received the first-ever Founders’ Award at the event.

Throughout the ceremony, attendees heard from former GLAAD board members, watched video montages of hallmark moments from the organization’s past 25 years — such as when Ellen DeGeneres’ character revealed she was a lesbian on her ABC TV comedy series in 1997 — and hissed at mentions of opponents of gay rights initiatives — such as Anita Bryant, Laura Schlessinger and Mel Gibson.

Jonathan Murray, co-creator of MTV’s The Real World, the long-running cable TV reality series that regularly includes gay and lesbian cast members, was bestowed with the Pioneer Award, given to a person or organization who significantly contributes to raising LGBT visibility in the media. Murray admitted the series never received much criticism.

“I think it’s because it was real,” he said. “How can you argue with something that’s real?”

—  John Wright

Local show makes GLAAD's Media Award nominees today

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Today, GLAAD announced the nominees for the 21st Annual Media Awards. The awards highlight the best in film, TV and journalism in both Spanish and English language markets. And one nominee could bring the award to Big D. For Outstanding Daytime Talk Show Episode, SuperLatina received a nomination for “Gay y Latino.” We mentioned the show before as it was about to air on local channel KXTX-TV 39.

I called SuperLatina host Gabriela Natale for her response to the news.

“We are so excited about the nomination. This is something that is very dear to us. We’re all for equality and we being a minority cannot look forward to equality if we turn our backs on other minorities. The response that we got was very positive and it was fulfilling to talk with the kids and the families. Not only did we talk with kids who were not accepted by families but we got to feature a traditional Latino family who was very supportive of their son. Many kids suffer discirmination but there are families that are taking a different attitude.”

To see the episode in four parts, go here.

Natale, pictured, wasn’t sure yet about attending the ceremony. It’s divided into three parts in three different cities on three different dates (really, GLAAD?). But she says she hopes it’s the New York event with Alan Cumming as host. Mostly because she’d like to see the English-speaking nominees for Daytime Talk Show Episode.

“Tyra and Oprah are nominated and I’m a big fan!”

The awards happen in New York on Mar 13; Los Angeles on Apr. 17; and in San Francisco on June 5.

—  Rich Lopez