ABC and Milk lead nominees for
awards from the 20th annual Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation Media Awards.
ABC has become a steadfast fixture at
the awards show, which aims to recognize positive portrayals of the
lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the media.
This year ABC earned six nominations with Brothers & Sisters,
Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty among its
contenders. This is the third year in a row for ABC to lead in
television nominations.
CBS posted four nominations. A
gay-affirming story line in As The World Turns will compete
with ABC's All My Children in the Outstanding Daily Drama
category. NBC trails with only two nominations for single episodes
of the medical drama ER and daily newsmagazine Today.
Best picture Oscar nominee Milk
topped the list in the Outstanding Film in Wide Release category.
The Focus Features film about the life and politics of San Francisco
gay activist Harvey Milk arrived just in time to weigh in on
California's gay marriage ban. It will compete against Miramax
Film's Brideshead Revisited, Columbia Pictures' Nick and
Norah's Infinite Playlist, Warner Bros' RocknRolla, and
The Weinstein Company's Vicky Christina Barcelona.
The mostly unknown films in the limited
release category will certainly benefit from their nomination.
The nominations are Strand Releasing's
The Edge of Heaven, New Open Door Productions' Noah's Arc:
Jumping the Broom, First Run Features Save Me, Regent
Releasing's Shelter, and Film Movement's XXY.
Gay cable channels Logo and here! swept
the Outstanding Television Movie category. Three Logo produced
movies – Affinity, East Side Story, and
Oh Happy Day – and two Donald Strachey detective-themed films –
Ice Blues and On
The Other Hand, Death – produced by here! are in competition.
“The nominees this year prove that
the stories of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender]
Americans are interesting compelling and will touch not only LGBT
audiences, but broader audiences as well,” GLAAD President Neil G.
Giuliano told the Associated Press.
Two special honors will be presented in
New York to Tyra Banks and Suze Orman. Banks will receive the
Excellence in Media award, and Orman will receive the Vito Russo
award.
The GLAAD Media Awards – which
recognize excellence in 41 categories including newspaper content,
syndicated columnists and comic books – will be presented in a
series of dinners: March 28 in New York, April 18 in Los Angeles and
May 9 in San Franscico.
On the Net: GLAAD is at www.glaad.org