GLAAD Award Nominees Announced

by Jarrett Martineau | January 22, 2008 at 10:12 am

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It's great to see how far we've come since the days of Ellen DeGeneres' sitcom being the only mainstream television series that promintently featured gay and lesbian characters. As GLAAD Presiden Neil Giuliano notes, "This year's extraordinary nominees exemplify the important strides we
have made as a community toward creating a truly inclusive society." The nominees were announced at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

For the second straight year, ABC led nominees for awards from an organization that monitors depictions of gays and lesbians in the media.

The network landed nine nominations from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, while CBS garnered three nods, NBC two and Fox two.

ABC's nominated shows include "Brothers & Sisters," "Ugly Betty" and "Desperate Housewives." Among cable networks, Logo received five nominations, CNN four, Bravo three and ABC Family two.

Nominees for feature film in wide release include Julie Taymor's Beatles musical "Across the Universe," the fantasy "Stardust" and "The Jane Austen Book Club."

Special prizes will go to singers Rufus Wainwright and Janet Jackson, MTV Networks president of entertainment Brian Graden, "My So-Called Life" actor Wilson Cruz, activist David Mixner and "The L Word" creator Ilene Chaiken.

The 19th annual GLAAD Media Awards — with 172 nominees in 40 categories — are split into four ceremonies, held in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and southern Florida in March, April and May.