GLAAD Media Awards let us catch up with Chad Allen, Jason Lewis, Wilson Cruz, Gavin Newsom and more!

The lag between the Academy Awards and Pride could be a drag on the gay social calendar. Fortunately, GLAAD's been around for the last couple of decades making sure that doesn't happen. They've also been making sure the media doesn't get away with ignoring, misrepresenting, insulting or just plain forgetting our community, of course. Those huge, glamorous awards banquets in three of the gayest and most fabulous cities in America? That's just what the gays do when we give out awards. It's in our DNA.

So America's gay celebs and our allies put on their tuxes and evening gowns and walk down the Red Carpet in support of equality for all. And this year, at least at last weekend's GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco, that means marriage equality, the subject on almost everyone's mind and lips.

The big winner of the evening was out actor Chad Allen, who received the Davidson/Valentini Award, presented each year to an "openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for our community."

Chad Allen

I asked Chad about the generally sympathetic portrayal of a Christian ex-gay ministry in his award-winning film Save Me, and whether he found himself feeling more in the way of anger about the Christian right after the passage of Prop 8 at the end of last year. Was he more hopeful about reaching out across the divide between our communities when he made the film than he is today?

"It's funny, one of the things I was thinking I'd talk about tonight, is that I was just the other day reading the newspaper, quoting somebody from the Yes on 8 campaign," he told me. "And some of the comments that they made concerning voters twice now rejecting gay marriage were very snide comments, you know, like, 'Shouldn't you just accept the answer "no."' And it really infuriated me."

He paused for a second, then went on. "I hope for, and believe in, and know we will ultimately see the healing of the divide you're talking about. I know that it's the evolution of our consciousness. We will come to know and accept each other. However, will will not and cannot wait for that to happen to fulfill our equality.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I believe that in terms of changing the way the world is, we will have to lead. We will have to demand and expect and attain our civil rights regardless of whether or not that healing takes place. And in fact, I think that the healing will take place only after we do so.

"And you know, anger is a good thing, too. I was so furious yesterday I couldn't even stand it. I was trying to figure out what I was going to say tonight, because I didn't want this night to be about anger, because GLAAD is a very different occasion than standing on the steps of the capitol building demanding equality. But the fact remains that there is a place for that anger, and it fuels what we're going to have to do in the coming years. So I hope that everybody's a little angry. We're going to need our anger."

Amen, Chad. Or, you know, the secular equivalent thereof.

It was a very different kind of anger that was on my mind when I saw Jason Lewis on the red carpet, though. Namely, his, last year, at this site for something that was said about him here. He assured me that all was now forgiven, and talked with me for quite a while.

After we declared Jason Lewis and AfterElton.com to be BFFs again, I asked him what it was like being back on Brothers and Sisters.

Jason Lewis

His face lit up. "I's fantastic. They are an incredible group of people, and Matthew is such a class act. It was nice just to be back playing with them."

What did he think when they asked him back, and told him about the threeway storyline? He laughed. "It was great. I was trying to make both those boys feel a little off their guard, and I think I did." He laughed again. "Just a little bit of competition."

And what about that kiss? "When I was on before, it was such a huge issue what they were going to show, and then it was blurred. They actually went for it this time."

He just finished filming a pilot for a medical drama called The Eastmans, so if that's picked up, expect to see plenty of Jason on your teevee screen.

The last time I spoke to Dustin Lance Black was during the press tour prior to the world premiere of Milk at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, well before its official opening and before the November election, too. Since that day, our community has gone through a lot of changes -- and so has Lance Black's life.

He's won an Academy Award, become a nationally recognized gay leader, and also become the first writer to make it onto the AfterElton Hot 100. I asked him what all these changes have been like for him.

Dustin Lance Black

First he expressed amazement that he was on the Hot 100. Then he said, "My activism brought me to write Milk, not the other way around. But it has given me opportunities I would not have had otherwise, like going back to my high school yesterday to talk to those kids about what it means to be proud of yourself, to be inclusive. I was able to get out our message of hope out to these people. I wouldn't have had that opportunity if I hadn't gotten an Academy Award. It's opened doors."

His next project will bring him back to the Bay Area, working once again with Milk director Gus Van Sant, this time the on a film of Tom Wolfe's 60s classic book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Who else was there? Robert Gant (Save Me, Queer as Folk), who spoke about the struggle for marriage equality and his experiences developing and acting in Save Me.

Robert Gant

He said the victory of Prop 8 was a huge blow, but may in the end turn out to have marked the moment the tide turned in our struggle. "It's very often coming back from something devastating that we find our sense of community, our voice, and are reminded who we really are," he said. "And we're realizing that what we are is equal."

He's glad that Save Me took a more balanced approach to the issues it explored, but said that he understood why some people wanted something more critical. "We're all still in the middle of figuring this out," he told me. "Change takes time. As producers, we worked to shape these roles and were very careful not to vilify the Christian characters, because that's the obvious place that people were expecting this to go, and even wanted it to go. I think many people are a little angry that it didn't. And I do understand that feeling.

"That said, the point of it was to incite a conversation between folks who are on opposite sides of a wall. Anything that vilifies one group in favor of another doesn't further the conversation. It just makes people dig their heels in more.And we have had extraordinary experiences through this with the Christian evangelical community. Even some apologizing for the harm done to gay people."

I made the mistake of asking Robert about his chocolate Lab, Bodhi, at that point, and we abandoned politics in favor of our shared love of dogs. Before he moved on, I remembered to ask him how he felt being on the AfterElton Hot 100 for the third year in a row, and he said he was touched and amazed that people "still remember me." I also need to note that there's a portrait of Robert Gant somewhere with some kind of hideous dermatological condition, because I was thisclose to him under some very bright lights, and his skin? Like a baby's butt.

Wilson Cruz was checking Twitter when he discovered he was on the AfterElton Hot 100 again, and shared his excitement with another Queer as Folk alum, actor Peter Paige. "I told Peter I was sure he'd be on it again, too," he said. "I think he's so hot." (Paige didn't make the cut this year.)

Wilson Cruz

The last episode of his current series, Pushing Daisies, will air in June, and he's featured in three films making the festival circuit this summer. What's next for Wilson?

"A film I'm very proud of, called People I've Slept With, will be out in the fall. And there are a couple of things I wish I could talk about, but can't." He laughed. "Let's just say I'll be around."

Romantically, things aren't going so well. He's not seeing anyone, and no, unlike Robert Gant and Chad Allen, doesn't even have a dog. "Now you're reminding me how alone I am in the world!" he told me.

"But you're on the Hot 100! With your shirt off!" I reminded him.

"Yes, I'm on the Hot 100! That's right. What picture did they use?"

I had to think for a minute. "One where you were pushing your abs forward," I said.

He smiled. "And why wouldn't I?"

Having seen the photo, what could I do but agree?

And, for those who aren't familiar with the newly-out Eduardo Xol's telenovella and music video stardom in Latin America, and haven't checked out the hunky landcscape designer on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, I'm going to guess that he's going to find quite a few new fans on AfterElton.com soon. When he stopped and posed for photographs, the crowd started yelling, "Take off your shirt, Eduardo!" He just blushed.

Eduardo Xol

Eduardo had a lot to say about marriage equality, too — which isn't surprising given that his boyfriend is an aide to outspoken gay rights supporter and New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman, who attended the awards as the date of ex-Queer as Folk star Michelle Clunie. "I live in Los Angeles and he lives in New York," Eduardo said of his boyfriend. "But we rendezvous wherever we can, whenever we can."

This was the last Media Awards banquet for outgoing GLAAD president Neil Giuliano, shown here with Jason Lewis, Pursuit of Equality filmmakers Mike Shaw and Geoff Callan, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. He's retiring this year to write a book and, hopefully, relax.

In fact, this was the most relaxed I've ever seen him. When I asked him what he thought about Perez Hilton's unexpected emergence as a public spokesman for our community, he gave a wry smile that actually turned into a laugh.

"Any time someone is able to create a conversation that gets people talking about our issues, that's a good thing," he said. "I wouldn't have approached it the same way Perez did, but that's why he's Perez and I'm with GLAAD.

"The media's always going to love the brash talk. They're going to leap on that and go after that. But Perez is not the story here. The story is inequality, and whether people know what they're talking about when they talk about this issue. If you're Miss California, you should know that you don't have choice in this state; it's illegal for gay people to get married. That's the story."

Photos courtesy of GLAAD.