The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced today the nominees and honorees for its 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards Presented by IBM. Among the nominees: Gus Van Sant's Academy Award®-nominated film Milk, Woody Allen's Academy Award-nominated film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Patrik-Ian Polk's big-screen adaptation of his hit sitcom Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, BBC America's hit shows Torchwood and Skins, HBO's vampire drama True Blood, the episodes "Ghostfacers" from Supernatural and "Slam" from Ghost Whisperer, Logo reality shows Shirts & Skins and Transamerican Love Story, MSNBC programs Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show, The Tyra Banks Show, and Spanish-language nominees Aquí y Ahora, Ventaneando América, Noticiero Telemundo, Hoy and Paparazzi TV.
"The 20th anniversary of the GLAAD Media Awards is an excellent opportunity to reflect on how media representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have evolved over the past two decades, clearly helping shape and evolve people's hearts and minds about LGBT people," said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. "GLAAD's media advocacy and anti-defamation work as a resource for media professionals, combined with enabling LGBT people and allies to be compelling storytellers, has played a significant role in stories about our lives achieving greater visibility and being more compelling, honest, and real than ever before. We are proud to recognize all of this year's GLAAD Media Awards nominees."
The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies will be held in New York on March 28, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis; in Los Angeles on April 18 at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE; and in San Francisco on May 9 at the Hilton San Francisco.
GLAAD also announced the Special Honorees for the New York ceremony: Tyra Banks will receive the Excellence in Media Award and Suze Orman will receive the Vito Russo Award. Information about both honorees may be found at www.glaad.org/mediaawards/20thAnnual/specialhonorees.php. Special Honorees for Los Angeles and San Francisco will be announced at a later date.
"Tyra Banks and Suze Orman have used their positions of power within the media to become strong advocates on behalf of the LGBT community," Giuliano said. "They are changing hearts and minds, opening people's eyes to our common humanity, and it is our privilege to honor them."
In addition to 125 nominees in 26 English-language categories, and 60 Spanish-language nominees in 15 categories, GLAAD also announced that it would present Special Recognition awards to The Laramie Project, 10 Years Later - The Lasting Legacy of Matthew Shepard, a two-hour documentary broadcast on Sirius XM Radio; and to Lucía Méndez, an actress and singer who campaigned to bring awareness to the issue of LGBT teen suicide.
In the competitive categories, broadcast networks and cable networks each garnered 22 nominations. Among the broadcast networks, ABC came away with six nominees, while Logo led cable networks with five nominations.
A complete list of English language nominees are available at:
www.glaad.org/mediaawards/20thAnnual/nominees.php.
