GALECA & GLAAD: Gay 'Best of the Year' Honors

Friday, January 31, 2014 at 7:38PM
NATHANIEL R in AHS, Blue is the Warmest Color, Dallas Buyers Club, GLAAD, James Franco, Jessica Lange, Kill Your Darlings, LGBT, Laverne Cox, Oscars (13), comic books

Though I complain about the proliferation of awards groups some of them serve more of a purpose than others, even if they're also lining up to honor the same things as every other group. Like AIDS related Best Picture nominee Dallas Buyers Club twhich some gay critics don't like at all and on principal but which factors into both of the gay-specific awards recently announced.

Now, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has made really suspect endorsements over the years (Let us not speak of I Know Pronounce You Chuck & Larry) but they've also highlighted and fought against a very real problem so you have to respect their greasy wheel existence if not always their execution of message. 

As per usual, GLAAD will hold a bicoastal bifurcated awards ceremony, first in Los Angeles in April and then in New York in May, long after Oscar season is over. GLAAD's film (and other medium) nominees as well as the nominees and winners of GALECA (the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) are after the jump with commentary and in some cases links. It's always bugged me that when magazines, blogs, and web articles are nominated for prizes the nominations list rarely have an easy way to check out the nominees so I figure I'm doing a public service by including them. You're welcome. 

Kill Your Darlings honored by both groups

GLAAD

OUTSTANDING FILM – WIDE RELEASE

• Blue Is the Warmest Color (Sundance Selects)
• Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features)
• Kill Your Darlings (Sony Pictures Classics)
• The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Sony Pictures Releasing)
• Philomena (The Weinstein Company)

GLAAD apparently has a different definition of "wide" than almost anyone else. Blue is the Warmest Color never reached even 200 screens (the traditional definition of wide is at least thrice that amount) and Kill Your Darlings never even reached 100. I'm genuinely confused by this. Also, why did no one tell me that The Mortal Instruments was gay-related in some way? Please to explain.

OUTSTANDING FILM – LIMITED RELEASE

• Concussion (RADiUS-The Weinstein Company)
• Geography Club (Breaking Glass Pictures)
• Out in the Dark (Breaking Glass Pictures)
• Reaching for the Moon (Wolfe Releasing)
• Yossi (Strand Releasing)

I regret to inform that I've only seen one of these pictures (Yossi) and did not like it. Concussion I shall seek out since I've only heard good things, particularly about Robin Weigert getting a big role. 

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

• The Fosters (ABC Family)
• Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
• Orphan Black (BBC America)
• Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family)
• Shameless (Showtime) 

Grey's Anatomy is still on?!? Is GLAAD on the ABC Family payroll? I can't feel charitable toward ABC Family shows because they cancelled Bunheads and that was just not right. I'm still not over it. 

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox)
• Glee (Fox)
• Modern Family (ABC)
• Orange is the New Black (Netflix)
• Please Like Me (Pivot)

Glee is still on ?!? I'm kidding. I know it's still on. The more pertinent question is why is anyone giving it prizes at this point?

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL EPISODE  (in a series without a regular LGBT character)

• “Bride and Prejudice,” The Soul Man (TV Land)
• “LARP and the Real Girl,” Supernatural (The CW)
• “Secret Lives,” Drop Dead Diva (Lifetime)
• “Snow Angels,” Elementary (CBS)
• “There’s the Door,” Necessary Roughness (USA Network)

Drop Dead Diva is still on ?!? I cannot accept this list because no Southland episode appears and speaking of great shows with a gay character.

OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES

• Behind the Candelabra (HBO)
• In the Flesh (BBC America) 

Why are there only two nominees?

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY

• Bridegroom (Virgil Films / OWN) -- awww, Glenn's "favorite"
• Call Me Kuchu (Cinedigm)
• God Loves Uganda (Variance Films)
• The New Black (Promised Land Films)
• Valentine Road (HBO) - Amir liked this. I cried throughout.

Remember when Call Me Kuchu & God Loves Uganda were oft compared and vying for Oscar attention. Neither were nominated but they both hit with GLAAD.

OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM

• Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce (Fuse)
• Cyndi Lauper: Still So Unusual (WE tv)
• Dream School (Sundance Channel)
• Project Runway (Lifetime)
• Small Town Security (AMC)

As a life long fan of Cyndi Lauper I have the credentials to tell you that her reality series is TERRIBLE. It made me like her a little less which is a feat nothing has ever accomplished. No, not the wrestling fanaticism. No, not the years of covers and greatest hits albums instead of making awesome new pop, no not anything. The title is "Still So Unusual" a reference to her classic solo debut "She's So Unusual" but if anything the show, makes her look just like every other celebrity. Maybe it's the format which is lazily generic, taking no risks and following every single formal and formulaic element of the the weirdly nonflexible reality genre in terms of editing, confessionals, and lack of actual content in favor of repetition, overexplaining, prefacing and then recapping. I swear most shows using this format (i.e. most of them) could be like 10 minutes long there's so little actual content. End rant.

OUTSTANDING TALK SHOW EPISODE

• “Are Gay Parents Different?” The Ricki Lake Show (syndicated)
• “First Openly Gay NBA Player Jason Collins and his Family," Oprah’s Next Chapter(OWN)
• “Fred Rosser,” The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated)
• “Laverne Cox,” Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell (FX) - embedded above
• “Modern Family Values,” Raising McCain (Pivot) 

OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM – NEWSMAGAZINE

• “Chris to Kristin: A Navy Seal’s Secret,” Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
• “India’s Third Gender,” The Stream (Al Jazeera America)
• “The Rebounder: The Kenneth Faried Story,” E:60 (ESPN)
• “Transgender at 11: Listening to Jazz,” 20/20 (ABC)
• “The Welcoming Movement,” To the Contrary (PBS)

OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM SEGMENT

• “Gay Rights at Work,” MSNBC Live (MSNBC)
• “Portman Reverses Position on Gay Marriage,” Starting Point (CNN)
• “Pride & Prejudice,” Melissa Harris-Perry (MSNBC)
• “Scouts Dishonor,” The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC)
• “Wild Blue Yonder: Scott Hines,” The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)

Methinks MSNBC is going to win something

OUTSTANDING NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

• “Boy or Girl? Gender a New Challenge for Schools” by Martha Irvine (Associated Press)
• “Gay Ex-mayor Who Fled U.S. Awaits Immigration Change” by Jeremy Roebuck (San Antonio Express-News [San Antonio, Texas])
• “LGBTQ in the Capital” (series) by Melissa Griffiths (Juneau Empire [Juneau, Alaska])
• “Poor Black and Hispanic Men Are the Face of H.I.V.” by Donald G. McNeil, Jr. (The New York Times)
• “Why Bisexuals Stay in the Closet” by Emily Alpert (Los Angeles Times) 

OUTSTANDING MAGAZINE ARTICLE

• “The Hidden War Against Gay Teens” by Alex Morris (Rolling Stone)
• “Owning the Middle" by Kate Fagan (ESPN The Magazine)
• “The Perfect Wife” by Ariel Levy (The New Yorker)
• “What’s Wrong With Exxon?” by Antonia Juhasz (The Advocate)
• “Why Gay and Lesbian Couples Pay More” by Carolyn M. Brown (Black Enterprise)

OUTSTANDING MAGAZINE OVERALL COVERAGE

• The Advocate
• ESPN The Magazine
• The New Yorker
• People
• Time

OUTSTANDING DIGITAL JOURNALISM ARTICLE

• “How Fallon Fox Became the First Known Transgender Athlete in MMA” by Loretta Hunt (SportsIllustrated.CNN.com)
• “How One Lawyer Turned the Idea of Marriage Equality into Reality” by Chris Geidner (Buzzfeed.com)
• “Prime Timers: Spotlight on LGBT Seniors” (series) (Advocate.com)
• “Repression and Gay Rights in Russia” by Sean Guillory  (TheNation.com)
• “Sex, Lies and HIV: When What You Don’t Tell Your Partner Ia Crime” by Sergio Hernandez (Buzzfeed.com / ProPublica.org)

OUTSTANDING DIGITAL JOURNALISM – MULTIMEDIA

• “Bisexuals Get Their Turn in the White House” by Alyona Minkovski (Live.HuffingtonPost.com)
• “Coming Out Kicking” by Cyd Zeigler (Outsports.com)
• “Remixing the Trans and Hip Hop Conversation” by Marc Lamont Hill (Live.HuffingtonPost.com)
• “To Get Married, They Left Ohio” by Julie Zimmerman on behalf of the Cincinnati EnquirerEditorial Board  (Cincinnati.Com)
• “We Are Here: LGBTI in Uganda” by Sunnivie Brydum, D. David Robinson (Advocate.com)

OUTSTANDING BLOG

• Autostraddle
• Elixher
• Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
• The New Civil Rights Movement
• TransGriot

OUTSTANDING MUSIC ARTIST

• Elton John, The Diving Board (Capitol Records)
• Goldfrapp, Tales of Us (Mute)
• Lady Gaga, ARTPOP (Interscope Records)
• Tegan and Sara, Heartthrob (Warner Bros. Records)
• Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City (XL Recordings)

Any preferences here? I ask because I am not well versed in music and am constantly willing to take other people's advice in this one artistic arena

OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK

• Batwoman, written by W. Haden Blackman, J.H. Williams III, Marc Andreyko (DC Comics)
• Fearless Defenders, written by Cullen Bunn (Marvel Comics)
• Husbands, written by Jane Espenson, Brad Bell (Dark Horse Comics)
• Life with Archie, written by Paul Kupperberg (Archie Comics)
• Young Avengers, written by Kieron Gillen (Marvel Comics)  

Though I don't follow comics closely and haven't for years I do occasionally notice news stories about them. The first Wiccan/Hulkling kiss happened in 2012 but the teen superheroes are still a couple (last I heard) which accounts for The Young Avengers nomination in this category. Sadly, though comics have long since gone there, it's hard to imagine a superhero movie featuring gay heroes. Over at DC, a few months back in September the writers of Batwoman quit over objections to the company's objections to storylines (see J.H. Williams blog) they were trying to see out - one, specifically, was a wedding for Batwoman who is an out lesbian so this nomination probably feels like a nice post script.

GALECA

I happened to be travelling when The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (of which, full disclosure, both Glenn and I are members) announced their nominees and then their winners but it went down and that was two weeks ago but if you haven't yet heard, here are the nominees (a few nice surprises) and winners (the usual)

GALECA does not host an awards show but instead holds a toast in LA each year for the winners.

That's a lotta list. Go forth and gay it up. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).