Skins and Torchwood nominated for GLAAD media awards
Two British TV programmes have been nominated for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards.
They recognise and honour media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives.
Channel 4’s Skins has been nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series and the BBC’s Torchwood has been nominated in the Outstanding Drama Series category.
Among the nominees are Gus Van Sant’s Oscar-nominated film Milk, Patrik-Ian Polk’s big-screen adaptation of his hit sitcom Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom, HBO’s vampire drama True Blood, MSNBC programmes Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow 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 recognise 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.
Tyra Banks will receive the Excellence in Media Award and Suze Orman will receive the Vito Russo Award at the New York ceremony.
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.
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.
A complete list of Spanish language nominees are available at:
www.glaad.org/mediaawards/20thAnnual/spanishnominees.php.
