The AfterElton.com 2007 Visibility Awards

Silvio Horta

For better or worse, television is America’s cultural currency. It is where we tell stories about ourselves and where we go to see ourselves reflected on a national stage in front of millions. This site’s motto is “Because Visibility Matters” and when it comes to popular culture — especially that of television — this year few gay men embodied that ethic more than Silvio Horta, executive producer and head writer for ABC’s Ugly Betty.

Horta's show is one of network television’s few bright spots for gay visibility and Ugly Betty’s message – one of tolerance for everyone whether they be gay, straight, transgender, old, overweight, or, of course, badly dressed – is one that especially speaks to the gay community.

Under Horta’s guidance, Ugly Betty has continued to promote that message with episodes focusing on Justin’s (Mark Indelicato) struggle to be the kind of son he thinks his father would have wanted, Alexis’ (Rebecca Romijn) navigating the world as a transgender woman, and Marc’s (Michael Urie) strained relationship with his homophobic mother. Betty even added another gay character when Marc fell in love with Cliff (David Blue), an unlikely love interest that further broadened the diversity of gay men we see on our televisions.

For those reasons we have selected Silvio Horta as AfterElton.com’s Man of the Year. Said Horta about the honor:

I'm not sure what qualities one needs to be named Man of the Year, but whatever it is I'm doing, I'll try to keep it up. To be a working writer is a dream in and of itself. To be working on a show like Betty — with a built-in message of acceptance — is the icing on the cake. Marco Pennette, my co-showrunner and Executive Producer, deserves a special thanks here too. He is an MVP of comedy, and a big part of Ugly Betty's gay sensibility.

Horta added:

From the start, I felt a gay sensibility within the premise of Ugly Betty — everyone feels like an outsider or underdog at some point in his/her life, and I think this rings especially true within the gay community. It's definitely important to have gay characters represented on television; more and more, young gay people see themselves on television or in the movies, and understand that they can be themselves. Also, those characters are the most fun to write!

Congratulations to Silvio and everyone at Ugly Betty. Now on to the rest of our Visibility Awards!

Best Scripted Network Series Featuring a Regular Gay Character

Ugly Betty (ABC)

Halfway through its second season, this ABC dramedy has thus far managed to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump. It also managed to become even more gay. The show’s single best achievement however is that it not only kept Wilhelmina’s assistant Marc St. James from descending into the parody of the bitchy gay assistant, but actually humanized him.

In the show’s 18^th episode, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” we met Marc’s homophobic mother (the brilliant Patti LuPone) and saw a much more vulnerable side of Marc. Then earlier this season, Marc took Betty’s young nephew Justin under his wing when he interned at Mode while still mourning his murdered father. And in October viewers had the great fun of watching Marc make a most unlikely love match with Cliff, a slightly chunky gay man the opposite of Marc in almost every way.

That Ugly Betty did all this without missing a beat puts it at the top of the heap.