GLAAD nominates Frank Ocean and Adam Lambert for media awards
Singers Frank Ocean and Adam Lambert have been nominated for GLAAD Media Awards, as well as the NBC series, The New Normal, Tom Hanks film, Cloud Atlas and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book series.
Frank Ocean, who was nominated for an Outstanding Music Artist award, wrote an open letter in 2012 saying that he was in love with a man when he was 19, and received praise from those in the music industry for coming out while beginning to forge a successful career as a hip-hop artist.
He did not go into further details when asked about it in interviews, however he did say that he “cried like a fucking baby” the night in which he posted the open letter about it on Tumblr.
Adam Lambert, also nominated, spoke out in 2012 to say American attitudes to homosexuality were changing so fast, the country was in the middle of a “big civil rights movement”.
The singer-songwriter, of American Idol fame, also said he didn’t care about what Paris Hilton had to say about gay men, after she became involved in a controversy for saying: “Ewwww…gay guys are the horniest people in the world…they’re disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS…I would be so scared if I was a gay guy…you’ll like, die of AIDS.” She later apologised for the slur.
The other artists in the category were Scissor Sisters, and Gossip.
The Sky Atlantic series, which starred Chloe Sevigny as a trans assassin was nominated for the Outstanding TV mini series award.
A good year for Ryan Murphy, who created Glee and NBC’s The New Normal, both nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, also celebrated the birth of his first child.
The New Normal, a series about a gay couple who use a surrogate to have their first child, came under fire last year from anti-gay campaign group, One Million Moms, which said it “subject[s] families to the decay of morals and values”, is “harmful to society” and “damaging to our culture”.
Mr Murphy said the “Moms” would probably enjoy it if they watched it.
Hollywood film, Cloud Atlas, which was described by critics as “gender-bending”, was co-directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, and is based on a book by David Mitchell, was nominated for Outstanding Wide Release Movie.
It starred Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant and Susan Sarandon, who all play multiple characters, crossing racial and gender lines, and features multiple time periods.
The producers of the popular comic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was nominated in the Comic Book category, introduced a new, gay, male, vampire slayer named Billy, and spoke about the issues around creating such a character.
Announcing the shortlist on Wednesday, GLAAD president Herndon Graddick says, “This year’s nominees enlighten and entertain, but also reflect a new American landscape where a growing majority accept and value their LGBT family, colleagues and friends. Now, more than ever, viewers not only accept gay and transgender plot lines, they expect them.”
The GLAAD Media Awards celebrate positive media depiction of the LGBT community. They are handed out over three ceremonies in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, which take place from March to May. The full list of nominees is available here.
