The 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards took place at the Hilton Midtown in New York this evening, celebrating a historic night in LGBTQ entertainment and media. Madonna became the second ever recipient of the Advocate for Change Award, which is presented to a person who, through their work, changed the game for LGBTQ people around the world. Andy Cohen also received the Vito Russo Award, which presented to an openly LGBTQ media professional who has made a significant difference in accelerating LGBTQ acceptance. Among this year’s biggest category winners are FX’s Pose (Outstanding Drama Series), CNN’s Tonight with Don Lemon (Outstanding TV Journalism Segment for “Same-sex Couple Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling”), and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode for “Trans Rights Under Attack”). Find a complete list of winners below in bold:
Outstanding Drama Series
Billions (Showtime)
Black Lightning (The CW)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Instinct (CBS)
Pose (FX)
Shadowhunters (Freeform)
Star (Fox)
Supergirl (The CW)
Wynonna Earp (Syfy)
Pose is a drama spotlighting the legends, icons and ferocious house mothers of New York’s underground ball culture, a movement that first gained notice in the 1980s. Making television history, Pose features the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles, including Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Hailie Sahar and Angelica Ross, who co-star alongside Tony Award winner and Golden Globe nominee Billy Porter, Ryan Jamaal Swain, Angel Bismark Curiel, and Dyllón Burnside. This series shines a light on an important yet often overlooked part of LGBTQ history, and specifically the role trans people played in that history.
Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode
“Mike Pence and ‘A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo'” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
“NRA Problems, Chicken Bone Problems, Birmingham Problems” Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas (HBO)
“Trans Rights Under Attack” Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
“Troye Sivan Hopes ‘Boy Erased’ Reaches All Parents” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)
“Valedictorian Seth Owen” The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated)
Former Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee’s late-night and news satire program Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, is a progressive, Emmy award-winning show on TBS. In the episode, “Trans Rights Under Attack,” Bee recounts Donald Trump’s measures to strip away the rights of the trans community, and sheds a light on all of the ways in which this administration has rolled back trans rights across the board. Bee ends her segment with a call-to-action, asking her audience to stand with trans people in the face of adversity.
Outstanding TV Journalism Segment
“Historic Number of LGBTQ Candidates on Ballots This Year” NBC Nightly News (NBC)
“Mississippi Town Denies Pride Parade” Vice News Tonight (HBO)
“Olympian Adam Rippon” New Day (CNN)
“Same-sex Couple Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling” CNN Tonight with Don Lemon (CNN)
“Trump: ‘Looking Very Seriously’ at Changing Transgender Definition” Velshi & Ruhle (MSNBC)
Don Lemon came out publicly in 2011, at a time when there were only two other openly gay people holding prominent on-air roles in network or cable news at the national level. Lemon has been hosting CNN Tonight since 2014, and has used his platform to draw attention to social issues such as LGBTQ rights, as seen in his segment, “Same-sex Couple Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling.” In the segment, Lemon interviews the gay couple at the center of the case in which the Supreme Court sided with the baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for the couple’s wedding.
Outstanding Film – Limited Release
1985 (Wolfe Releasing)
Boy Erased (Focus Features)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight)
Disobedience (Bleecker Street)
The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)
Hearts Beat Loud (Gunpowder & Sky)
A Kid Like Jake (IFC Films)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (FilmRise)
Saturday Church (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
We the Animals (The Orchard)
Golden-Globe nominated drama Boy Erased follows the story of a young son of Baptist parents, who is forced to participate in a gay conversion therapy program. Boy Erased exposes the horrors of conversion therapy, which can make depression and suicide more likely in participants. Conversion therapy is still an issue today, as it remains legal in 34 states in the United States. Boy Erased sheds a light on the harmful repercussions of the practice.
Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series
American Horror Story: Apocalypse (FX)
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Life-Size 2 (Freeform)
Sense8 (Netflix)
A Very English Scandal (Amazon Prime)
Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace tells the story of the lives and deaths of Gianni Versace and his killer Andrew Cunanan, highlighting the ever-present homophobia that shaped both of their fates. The series highlights not only the homophobia that caused police to disregard Cunanan’s killings (as his victims were gay men) and possibly led to Versace’s death, but also the stigma and suffering that the HIV/AIDS crisis brought upon the gay community into the 1990s.
Outstanding Music Artist
Brandi Carlile, By the Way, I Forgive You (Low Country Sound/Elektra)
Brockhampton, Iridescence (RCA)
Christine and the Queens, Chris (Because Music)
Hayley Kiyoko, Expectations (Atlantic)
Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (Bad Boy Records)
Kim Petras, Turn Off the Light, Vol. 1 (BunHead)
Shea Diamond, Seen It All (Asylum Worldwide)
Sophie, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides (Future Classics)
Troye Sivan, Bloom (Capitol Records)
Years & Years, Palo Santo (Polydor)
Janelle Monáe is a prolific musician whose latest album Dirty Computer received two Grammy nominations and debuted at number six on the Billboard Top 200. Monáe’s lyrics and the accompanying film for Dirty Computer are explicitly queer, reflecting her identity as “a queer black woman.” She frequently uses her platform to advocate for LGBTQ rights and act as an activist, and her work has only continued with the release of Dirty Computer.
Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine
“Conversion Therapy: God Only Knows” CBS Sunday Morning (CBS)
“Gender: The Space Between” CBS News (CBS)
“Legacy of Hope” Nightline (ABC)
“Respect” SC Featured (ESPN)
“South Texas Pride” [series] KSAT News (KSAT-TV [San Antonio, Texas])
CBS Sunday Morning’s segment “Conversion Therapy: God Only Knows” details the harm conversion therapy brought on the young people forced to participate in it. The segment focuses on two people who were forced to participate in conversion therapy, in which they detail the horrifying consequences. It also focuses on an evangelical pastor who took a stand against the practice, and some officials from various conversion therapy organizations. The segment sheds a light on the damage forced upon an estimated 700,000 adults in the United States who received conversion therapy treatment.
Outstanding Newspaper Article
“He Took a Drug to Prevent AIDS. Then He Couldn’t Get Disability Insurance.” by Donald G. McNeil Jr. (The New York Times)
“LGBTQ Parents Challenge Stereotypes in China” by Sue-Lin Wong, Jason Lee (Reuters)
“‘More Than Fear’: Brazil’s LGBT Community Dreads Looming Bolsonaro Presidency” by Marina Lopes (The Washington Post)
“Pistons’ Reggie Bullock to Transgender Community: ‘I see y’all as people that I love'” by Malika Andrews (Chicago Tribune)
“Transgender Students Asked Betsy DeVos for Help. Here’s What Happened.” by Caitlin Emma (Politico)
The New York Times article “He Took a Drug to Prevent AIDS. Then He Couldn’t Get Disability Insurance” written by Donald G. McNeil Jr. follows the story of Dr. Phillip J. Cheng, a gay man who was denied disability insurance because he took Truvada to protect himself from getting H.I.V. The article sheds a light on the blatantly discriminatory practice many insurance companies use in order to deny coverage to those on PrEP.
Outstanding Digital Journalism Article
“Across U.S., LGBTQ Christians Try to Change Hearts and Minds From the Pews” by Julie Compton (NBCNews.com)
“Bermuda Same-sex Marriage Ban Means Trouble for Tourism and Cruise Ships” by Ryan Ruggiero (CNBC.com)
“Deadnamed” by Lucas Waldron, Ken Schwencke (ProPublica.org)
“LGBTQ Caravan Migrants Marry While Waiting for Asylum in Tijuana” by Sarah Kinosian (INTOmore.com)
“Workplaces Need to Prepare for the Non-Binary Future” by Samantha Allen (TheDailyBeast.com)
The CNBC digital article “Bermuda Same-sex Marriage Ban Means Trouble for Tourism and Cruise Ships” by Ryan Ruggiero focuses on the law passed in Bermuda that bans same-sex marriage, as well as cruise ships registered in Bermuda from hosting same-sex wedding ceremonies. Ruggiero’s article details the financial consequences of discriminatory practices such as this, reporting that the same-sex marriage ban will hurt the tourism business, which is one of Bermuda’s two largest economic sectors, greatly.
Outstanding Digital Journalism – Video or Multimedia
“I Was Jailed for Raising the Pride Flag in Egypt” by Amro Helmy (Buzzfeed Video)
“The Latinx Drag Queens Spearheading HIV Activism on the Border” by Paola Ramos (Vice.com)
“March for Our Lives and LGBT activism: ‘They’re definitely linked for me,’ says Emma González” by Beth Greenfield (Yahoo! Lifestyle)
“Marielle and Monica: The LGBT Activists Resisting Bolsonaro’s Brazil” by Fabio Erdos, Marina Costa, Charlie Phillips, Jacqueline Edenbrow (TheGuardian.com)
“Trans Model Aaron Philip is Making a Space for Disabilities on the Runway” (NowThis)
The Yahoo! Lifestyle video by Beth Greenfield titled “March for Our Lives and LGBT activism: ‘They’re definitely linked for me,’ says Emma González” explores the relationship between anti-gun violence activism and LGBTQ activism. The piece focuses on the New York City-based group Gays Against Guns (GAG) and Emma Gonzalez, the young bisexual woman at the head of the March for Our Lives movement.
Outstanding Blog
Gays With Kids
Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
My Fabulous Disease
Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
TransGriot
After appearing on local radio under the name “Pittsburgh’s Official Lesbian Correspondent,” Sue Kerr decided to extend her reach and voice through the creation of her blog Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents in December 2005. As a trained social worker who has “been enthralled by the power of social media…as a community organizing tool”, Kerr sees “blogging [as] an extension of [her] community organizing work as an LGBTQ activist, a feminist, a social worker, and just a human being.”
Outstanding Scripted Television Series (Spanish-Language)
Élite (Netflix)
Mi familia perfecta (Telemundo)
Mi marido tiene más familia (Univision)
Papá a toda madre (Univision)
Élite’s Omar and Ander, and Mi Marido Tiene Más Familia’s Aristóteles and Temo are young gay couples who have captured the hearts of the millions of fans worldwide. Both shows have helped prove that media inclusion is something young people all over the world hunger for, support, and deserve.
Outstanding TV Journalism Segment (Spanish-Language)
“Entrevista con Pat ‘Cacahuate’ Manuel” NoticiasYa Tampa Bay (Univision)
“LAFC Pride Republic” KMEX-TV (Univision)
“Madre hispana lucha contra un agresivo cáncer seno” Noticias Univision Arizona (Univision)
“Primera Pareja Gay en Casarse en un Consulado Mexicano” Noticias Telemundo Mediodía (Telemundo)
“Transpesina” Univision 21 Fresno (Univision)
Univision’s “Primera Pareja Gay en Casarse en un Consulado Mexicano,” which reached the network’s sizable national news audience, does a great job of bringing to life and personalizing the importance of marriage equality for LGBTQ couples.
The New York City ceremony will air exclusively on Logo on Sunday, May 12 at 8pm ET/PT.
The 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards are supported by Presenting Partners Delta Air Lines, Gilead, Hyundai, Ketel One Family-Made Vodka, and Wells Fargo. GLAAD is also grateful to: Official Partners Bud Light and Google; Titanium Partner AT&T and WEN; Platinum Partners Comcast NBCUniversal-Telemundo, Creative Artists Agency, Disney ABC Television Group, Facebook/Instagram, HBO, Hulu, Kaiser Permanente, MetLife, NBA & WNBA, Netflix, Omnicom Group, PRG, Sheppard Mullin, Turner; Gold Partners CBS/Showtime, Nielsen, PWC, UM, Univision, and VER; and Silver Partners Allstate, Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Warner Bros.
