GLAAD-related stories
Posted May 23rd 2009 8:10AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd
As a former male dancer, I understand Nigel's point about the male and female roles in partner dancing. And Mary's confusion in figuring out how to judge Misha Belfer and Mitchel Kibel, two guys who partnered on a samba. The roles of each partner are very clearly defined in that form of dance, and they are traditionally gender specific. What didn't work out as well was Nigel's pithy little jokes. He went the easy route saying things like the boys "might actually like it" about dancing with girls, even though they've done so in the past.
What you have to consider is he followed that up by telling a contestant who performed in a bizarre lion costume with lightsabers that she was clearly from a different planet. So I think it's more a matter of poorly considered attempts at humor than that
Nigel Lythgoe is a homophobe, as he's being accused now by GLAAD. He attempts to spice up the show and make it entertaining with his little comments. We all say stupid and insensitive things that we don't mean from time to time. Maybe it needed to be edited out before broadcast.
Continue reading I actually understand what Nigel was trying to say on SYTYCD
Posted Jul 14th 2008 7:01PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Desperate Housewives, ER, Rescue Me, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, Reality-Free
Including gay characters on your TV show is good, unless it's two lesbians who fall in love with a straight man, as they do in a storyline on
New Amsterdam. FOX learned that the hard way when they received a failing grade from GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) on their
second annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index. The index measures the "quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television."
Even though GLAAD gave FOX a failing grade, the network's cable counterpart, FX, received top honors for cable channels. The advocacy group praised them for including the most original programming that featured members LGBT community. Special notice was given to
Nip/Tuck, which had a gay, lesbian, or bisexual character in every episode.
Rescue Me's commitment ceremony storyline was also viewed favorably by the group.
Continue reading GLAAD praises ABC and FX, but gives NBC and FOX the big fail
Posted Apr 28th 2008 12:34PM by Erin Martell
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Celebrities, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, Awards
Ugly Betty, Brothers & Sisters, and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List all received GLAAD Media awards in a ceremony held over the weekend. The award honors fair media portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. This is the second GLAAD award for both ABC shows, which won for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series. Kathy Griffin's show is a first-time winner in the Outstanding Reality Series category.
The event was attended by many TV personalities, including T.R. Knight, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel, and Sally Field. Bravo will air the ceremony at an undetermined date and time. It will be the first time the GLAAD awards have aired on a national cable network.
Continue reading GLAAD Media awards recognize outstanding TV series
Posted Apr 2nd 2008 11:38AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Late Night, Talk Show, Reality-Free
You would think since Don Imus and his dumb attempt at humor got him kicked off of MSNBC that TV personalities would think before they joke. You would like to think that's true -- but it's not. In the latest bit of amazing insensitivity and stupidity, NBC's
Jay Leno has apologized for a gay gag.
The star of
Tonight was chatting with Ryan Phillippe the other night about the star's new film
Stop-Loss. Thanks to some crack researcher on the
Tonight writing staff, Jay decided to ask Ryan about one of his earliest acting jobs -- playing Billy Douglas, a closeted, gay teenager on
One Life to Live struggling with his sexual identity. In a flip way, Leno asked Ryan to show him what it was like when he was playing gay. He said, "Can you give me your gayest look? Say that camera is Billy Bob... Billy Bob has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming."
Continue reading Jay Leno apologizes for gay remarks from Phillippe interview
Posted Aug 8th 2007 1:42PM by Varun Lella
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Ugly Betty
According to a new study released by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, depictions of gay, lesbian and transgender characters and issues
are not doing so well on prime-time television.
In the group's first ratings report, which ranges from "excellent" to "failing," looks at the number of occurrences of gay characters or themes in the 4,700 hours of programming between June 2006 and May 2007.
Continue reading Study says TV not gay enough
Posted Jan 23rd 2007 11:03AM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Desperate Housewives, Daytime, The Office, Ugly Betty, Awards
The GLAAD Media Award nominations were announced over the weekend. The Awards honor films, movies, music, news outlets, advertisements, plays and even comic books that offer "fair, accurate and inclusive" representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. There are no real surprises among the nominees, which include
The L Word,
Desperate Housewives,
Ugly Betty ("jazz hands") and
The Office. The individual episode nominations are reserved for those shows without regular gay characters and include
Grey's Anatomy, a show making headlines right now not for its storylines but for actor
Isaiah Washington's reported homophobic remarks. Amazingly,
South Park was not nominated for its brave portrayal of a post-op Mrs. Garrison.
The Awards will be broadcast on Logo on April 21st. A list of the television nominees follows the jump. A full list of nominees in all categories can be seen on the
GLAAD website.
Continue reading GLAAD Media Award nominees announced
Posted Aug 22nd 2006 11:02AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, The CW
GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, have released their annual tally of gay characters in leading or supporting roles on network television, and they're not pleased with the results. They've counted nine gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters out of a total of eight shows. Meanwhile, the Eskimo Coalition is reporting much smaller numbers than GLAAD. Honestly, I don't know how to feel about this. I like to see everyone represented fairly, and for shows to represent the diversity that exists within these groups, but I'm not sure how realistic that is. It seems the content and themes of television programs are driven by the market more than anything. Once in awhile a show will manage to break through and set a new standard, but the notion that eventually everyone will be represented equally across the board seems a tad naive.
Posted Jan 23rd 2006 10:42AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, FOX, American Idol
The season premiere of
American Idol included a few questionable comments that have ticked off gay
rights groups. The group, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), is demanding to meet with
Idol
producers over two specific comments made by Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson. During one audition, Simon told a hopeful
to "shave off your beard and wear a dress." I believe he added that the contestant would make an excellent
female impersonator. The second comment came from Jackson, who asked an effeminate contestant named Zachary if he was a
girl. Then, when Zachary left the auditions, the theme to
The Crying Game was
played. Neither contestant made it to the next round.
Posted Jan 13th 2006 9:09PM by Kim Voynar
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Programming, OpEd, Watercooler Talk
Controversial new television show The Book of Daniel has been removed from the lineup
of Nashville's NBC affiliate after the show drew thousands of complaints from irate viewers, incuding letters faxed in
on church letterhead. The show has now been pulled from seven network affiliates, mostly in the South. The
Book of Daniel, which features Aidan Quinn as a pill-popping Episcopalian priest with a gay son, has drawn the
fire of conservative Christian groups, most notably the American Family Association, which is encouraging members
through its website to protest the show and threaten boycotts of advertisers.
Continue reading Another station cans Book of Daniel
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