GLAAD Media Awards Nominees Announced

LOS ANGELES - The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), has announced the nominees for its 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards. By recognizing and honoring media for outstanding images of the LGBT community, the GLAAD Media Awards serve as a benchmark for the media industry and complement GLAAD's work to bring LGBT images and stories to Americans.

Among the nominees: Lisa Cholodenko's Golden Globe®-nominated film The Kids Are All Right, I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, Howl, starring James Franco, the summer hit film Easy A, HBO's acclaimed drama True Blood, Fox's hit show Glee, ABC's hit comedy Modern Family, NBC's hit sitcom 30 Rock, Prodigal Sons, a documentary about a transgender woman and her family, season eight of Project Runway, The Oprah Winfrey Show for Ricky Martin's first televised interview, MSNBC's interview with Fort Worth City Council member Joel Burns, CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, Essence.com's "Bridal Bliss: Aisha and Danielle," the Scissor Sisters, Chely Wright, and Spanish-language nominees Levántate, Aquí y Ahora, Caso Cerrado, Casos de Familia, and openly gay music artists Christian Chávez and Fedro.

In 2011, the GLAAD Media Awards will also celebrate GLAAD's 25th anniversary year, looking back at a quarter-century of work to build acceptance and advance equality through LGBT images in the media.

"This year's nominees represent some of the images and stories at the root of the growing acceptance of our community and support for our equality," said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. "They also have created a benchmark for inclusion of our community that other media outlets should look to. As GLAAD celebrates 25 years of working with the media, we are proud to recognize this year's nominees, and we challenge the industry to share more stories that reflect the diversity of our community and the challenges that gay and transgender people face."

The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies will be held in New York on March 19, 2011 at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square; in San Francisco on May 14 at San Francisco Marriott Marquis and in Los Angeles.

GLAAD announced 114 nominees in 23 English-language categories, and 33 Spanish-language nominees in 9 categories. In the English-language categories, cable networks earned 22 nominations, while broadcast networks garnered 11 nominations.

This year GLAAD introduced a new category to recognize independent blogs, in recognition of the growing role of online media in shaping today's culture. The first nominees in this category are The Bilerico Project, Blabbeando, Joe. My. God., Pam's House Blend, and Rod 2.0.

Special Honorees for each city will be announced in the coming weeks.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.

The 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards nominees were published, released or broadcast between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010. Nearly 1,000 media projects were considered by over 85 volunteers serving on seven nominating juries. Each year, the GLAAD Media Awards in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco bring together more than 5,000 supporters to raise nearly $3.5 million for the organization's work.

More than 100 corporate partners are showing their support, including National Presenting corporate partner Rokk Vodka, New York Presenting corporate partner American Airlines and San Francisco Presenting corporate partner Southwest Airlines. GLAAD is also grateful to the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards Platinum Underwriter corporate partners, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. and Time Warner, as well as Underwriter corporate partners: Allstate Insurance Company, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Comcast, Delta Air Lines, DLA Piper, Harrah's Foundation, Hyatt, MillerCoors, New York City Marriott & Renaissance Hotels, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, and VPI Pet Insurance.