GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender and queer media advocacy group, shall be honored with the 2023 Governors Award, the Tv Academy introduced immediately. The group shall be acknowledged for its work over almost 4 a long time to safe truthful, correct and various illustration of the LGBTQ group within the media and leisure industries and to advocate for LGBTQ equality. GLAAD’s President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, will settle for the award in the course of the Jan. 15 Emmy Awards telecast on Fox.
First awarded in 1978, the Governors Award honors a person, firm or group that has made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the humanities and/or science of tv, in accordance with the Tv Academy. Final 12 months’s award went to the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Debbie Allen was honored with the award in 2021, and Tyler Perry and The Perry Basis have been acknowledged in 2020.
Based in 1985 by Vito Russo, creator of The Celluloid Closet, and different LGBTQ advocates, GLAAD works with leaders in tv, movie, gaming, information, enterprise, politics and extra to steer the worldwide dialog and guarantee genuine and various LGBTQ tales are seen and heard. “GLAAD’s diligence and affect are particularly vital in immediately’s world as we’re seeing a flood of anti-LGBTQ laws being proposed throughout the nation. We’re honored to acknowledge GLAAD’s dedication to equality for all,” stated Governors Award Choice Committee Chair Kim Taylor-Coleman.
“Tv shapes our society and influences dialogue that will increase understanding and acceptance, making GLAAD’s work so necessary to the LGBTQ group to legislative our bodies and to the general public,” stated Frank Scherma, Chair of the Tv Academy. “By way of its schooling and advocacy packages, it has had a culture-changing affect.”
Ellis has served as president and CEO of GLAAD since 2014.
“This great honor from the Tv Academy is a testomony to the historic and impactful work of GLAAD’s founders, board members and workers over the previous 4 a long time in addition to the LGBTQ executives, creators and expertise who’re telling genuine LGBTQ tales on tv,” stated Ellis. “At a time when our world appears extra divided and media performs an outsized function in shaping tradition, tv has the distinctive energy to inform human tales that develop empathy and acceptance. This honor is simply the newest instance of how the Tv Academy performs a pivotal function in making certain correct and various storytelling, which educates, entertains and enlightens.”
The TV Academy identified GLAAD’s annual The place We Are on TV report tracks the amount, high quality and variety of LGBTQ illustration whereas additionally informing GLAAD’s personal advocacy inside the tv trade.
GLAAD runs campaigns, packages and initiatives centered on visibility and dialogue about LGBTQ folks and points, together with Spirit Day, when leaders in leisure, information, sports activities and schooling converse out in assist of LGBTQ youth. Most lately, GLAAD held its inaugural Black Queer Inventive Summit, which introduced over 150 Black LGBTQ writers and creatives collectively to share finest practices for working within the leisure trade. GLAAD has additionally consulted with organizations that symbolize different traditionally marginalized communities to share finest practices and advance their work with the media.
The annual GLAAD Media Awards, which honor excellent LGBTQ-inclusive information and leisure tasks, will have fun its 35th anniversary this 12 months.
Different earlier recipients of the Governors Award embrace Star Trek, American Idol, mtvU Marketing campaign for Darfur, PBS, Masterpiece Theater, Hallmark Playing cards Inc. and Walter Cronkite.
The 75th Emmy Awards will air on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, (8-11 PM EST/5-8 PM PST) on Fox.