SOME ARE REALLY GLAAD. SOME ARE KIND OF GLAAD. SOME ARE NOT GLAAD AT ALL
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) presented 26 of their 40 GLAAD awards Monday night in New York, and AfterElton.com was very pleased — and surprised — to have won the award for Outstanding Digital Journalism Article for James Hillis' “Gay Newsmen — A Clearer Picture,” an in depth look at the issues confronted by gay journalists. The other nominees included Newsweek.com, ESPN.com, BET.com and Salon.com, so we were in rather esteemed company. And by winning the award, we made a little bit of history as this was the first time GLAAD opened up the awards to GLBT media, and we were the first to win an award. Personally, I couldn't be more proud of James and the work he did. (No, James. You can't have a pay raise. Or my office chair.)

As always, the GLAAD awards aren't without their controversy, but before I get to that, one of the other highlights of ceremony was Brian Graden's (president of MTV which owns Logo which in turn is our parent company) being honored with the Vito Russo Award, an award presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the GLBT community.

Even in 2008, there are network executives and presidents who stay quiet about their being gay, so I think it's wonderful GLAAD honored Graden who is not only very open about who he is, but has done so much for gay visibility during his career. Said Graden during his acceptance speech:

Should we really accept present reality? A world where jobs are not protected? Where kids like Sean [Kennedy] are still dying because we have no hate crimes legislation? Where I can serve in the military, but I have to shut up about it? Where I can't marry the man I love or have a family? Once and for all, the answer is, never shall we accept that reality…because we are not invisible.

As I said, the awards are not without controversy, and the most controversial award of the night was naming Robert De Niro's gay pirate film Stardust as Outstanding Film - Wide Release. Stardust? Seriously? Sorry, GLAAD, but it was a terrible movie! (EDITOR's UPDATE: I should've made clear I thought De Niro's gay pirate was great and don't have a problem with GLAAD honoring the movie for the portrayal. I was just trying to make a joke about how bad I thought the rest of the movie was.)

Okay, I jest about that being this year's GLAAD controversy, but it does touch upon one of the issues that bedevils the gay rights organization: what exactly are they honoring? According to a GLAAD press release, "The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives."

Unfortunately, one person's "fair, accurate, and inclusive" can be someone else's biased, innaccurate, and exclusive representation. And that brings us to As the World Turns.

Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann of As the World Turns presenting the GLAAD 101 video

The CBS daytime drama was honored as Outstanding Daily Drama, something that more than a few of our readers were not happy about. And it wasn't just folks here. Said the Los Angeles Times' Tom O'Neil who writes The Gold Derby blog, "How queer! An organization devoted to battling prejudice against gays in the media honored a TV soap that blatantly discriminates against homosexual love!"

Oh, puh-leeze. I guess the daytime award should have gone to, well, I suppose Passions with their downlow storyline about gay men cheating on their wives and being abusive to each other. Here is a clip from that show as a reminder of how that soap handled their gay storyline.

Not exactly fair, accurate or inclusive was it?

So if not Passions, I guess the award could have gone to...oh, that's right, there are no other gay characters on daytime television. Obviously, just having a gay character doesn't warrant an award (witness Passions), but no matter how you feel about the lack of kissing on ATWT, I think GLAAD did the right thing in honoring the show.

I've already written plenty about what I think the show does right, so I shan't drone on about that again. But I will reiterate how important I think the "carrot and stick" approach is to advancing gay rights. When a person or institution does something to advance the cause of GLBT visibility, even if they don't do it exactly right, I think it's important to acknowledge that . And that is what GLAAD did on Monday night.

And I think it's also perfectly valid for others — such as the groups that launched the media blitz to bring attention to the lack of kissing on the show — to criticize the program. This way the show gets praised for taking up our cause, but also understands they haven't got it completely right.

As for GLAAD — are they perfect? No. Could they explain what they do better to the general public? Probably. Are there times they could react more quickly and more muscularly when homophobia rears its head in the media? Undoubtedly. But am I glad GLAAD exists, and do I think we're better off because they do? Undoubtedly.