News category winners at the 36th GLAAD Media Awards spotlight the importance of accurate and inclusive journalism in accelerating acceptance for LGBTQ people. They cover LGBTQ people as newsmakers, changemakers, and everyday members of their communities nationwide.
The honorees were announced at GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles on March 27th, and included three awards for Spanish language news outlets.
Forty years ago this year, lack of accurate LGBTQ representation in the news sparked the founding of GLAAD. GLAAD’s founders, incensed as the media ignored or disparaged LGBTQ people suffering and dying in the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis, began working with reporters to cover the community and the crisis accurately, and to demand accountability from elected officials. It began to turn the tide of the epidemic and toward greater acceptance of LGBTQ people overall.
“We used the powerful tool of media along with our allies to create a better and more equal world,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in her address during the awards ceremony. “And it worked. Because stories shift culture and rewrite narratives. They give people power to see beyond their own experience, to open their minds to those they have never met, and to challenge the prejudice they were handed.”
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Working with newsrooms to improve coverage of LGBTQ people remains a core mission for GLAAD and its News and Rapid Response team.
The news winners this year represent growing visibility of LGBTQ people in communities across the country and in national conversations about important issues of our time.
The Dallas Morning News won its first GLAAD Media Award, Outstanding Print Article, for the front-page feature “‘Changing The Narrative’: Advocates Fight HIV Stigma in Dallas’ Latino Community.” Amid increases in HIV rates among Latino men, reporter Abraham Nudelstejer profiled health advocates and Latinos living with HIV to highlight the challenge of reaching underserved communities and breaking the stubborn stigma that fuels the ongoing epidemic.
“Dallas Morning News’ Abraham Nudelstejer put life, heart and perspective into a groundbreaking story highlighting the health setbacks Latino men specifically face in the ongoing HIV epidemic,” said Jacob Reyes, GLAAD Communications Coordinator in Texas.
“Through Nudelstejer’s thoughtful reporting and insight from advocates like Juan Contreras, JP Cano and Anthony Perez, the Dallas Morning News increased awareness and information that can inspire and potentially save lives.”
Two of the most consequential events of 2024 and the LGBTQ people at the center of them were recognized with GLAAD Media Awards.
Reporter Jo Yurcaba of NBC News was honored for Outstanding Online Journalism Article. Yurcaba interviewed friends of Oklahoma teenager Nex Benedict, who died after being beaten in the high school bathroom. Nex’s death drew mainstream coverage of the bullying Nex endured, the inaction of school and police officials, and the state-sponsored harassment of Oklahoma’s 2Spirit Gender nonconforming LGBTQ youth.
“It was one of those things where you meet them and you automatically feel like you’ve known them for years kind of thing,” Nex’s friend Ally told Yurcaba, before a vigil for Nex. “They were such an adventurous little thing. It was never really a dull moment with them.”
The historic election of Sarah McBride, the first out transgender person elected to Congress, highlighted a bright contrast to inflammatory anti-transgender campaign ads deployed during the 2024 presidential election.
PBS NewsHour won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment for its post-election interview with Rep. McBride, leading the national conversation about transgender people and politics, by actually talking with a transgender person in politics.
“I’m used to working with people who not only disagree with me, but who disagree with me on some pretty fundamental issues to my own life.” Rep. McBride told NewsHour host Amna Nawaz.
“But that’s how we make government work better. It’s by recognizing that I might disagree with you on every other issue but the one right before me, and I have to seize that opportunity to make that progress.”
CBS’ 48 Hours won Outstanding TV Journalism – Long Form – for its in-depth investigation: “The Life and Death of Blaze Bernstein.”
The investigation follows the life and legacy of Blaze Bernstein, a brilliant Ivy League student who was murdered in January 2018 by a former classmate turned white supremacist. Over the course of the investigation, details of the suspect’s past were revealed, indicating that he targeted Blaze because he was both gay and Jewish. 48 Hours followed this case from the beginning, releasing part one of their investigation in November 2018 and part two following the suspect’s trial and sentencing in November 2024.
“Blaze was a brilliant, creative college student with his whole life ahead of him, and a kid who proudly embraced both his Jewish & LGBTQ identities. To see his life cut short in the name of hate is a horrific loss,” said Sarah Moore, GLAAD Senior Manager of News & Research and guest expert with 48 Hours. “With anti-LGBTQ hate becoming more mainstream, it’s imperative that we continue to fight hate in coalition – and recognize that hate impacting one of us, impacts all of us.”
“Blaze’s life mattered and he has a legacy,” Blaze’s mother, Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, told 48 Hours. “To create good news, to inspire people to be better, to be kinder. And to work on repairing the world, because it’s not too late and we can make it better.”
CBS Sports was honored for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: “Big Gay Football.” Former Dallas Cowboys star RK Russell, who came out as bisexual in 2019, and LGBTQ ally Khalen Saunders, who won two Super Bowl titles with the Kansas City Chiefs, presented the award and announced the founding of an LGBTQ-inclusive youth football camp this summer. “Football is for all,” Saunders said.
A worldwide team from NPR won Outstanding Online Journalism – Video or Multimedia for “Rainbow Girls: 10 Years of Protection and Prejudice” The Picture Show (NPR.org).
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“This film would not exist without the courage and generosity of the women who chose to speak out,” photographer Julia Gunther posted. “They trusted us with their experiences, and we are deeply grateful. This award is for them.”
Out LGBTQ reporters and outlets focused on LGBTQ people and issues were also honored.
The Advocate won Outstanding Magazine, Overall Coverage, besting nine other outlets in the category. Tracy E. Gilcrest, Vice President at equalpride, The Advocate’s parent company, accepted the award and presented, with host Michael Urie, the ceremony’s closing number with Jake Wesley Rogers, who performed Queen’s We Are the Champions.
The 19th, founded in 2020 to cover gender, politics, and policy, won in a new category, Outstanding Independent Journalism. The 19th’s commitment to LGBTQ stories includes having two transgender reporters on staff, Orion Rummler and Kate Sosin.
The 19th is named for The 19th Amendment, which granted white women the right to vote in 1920. “Women and LGBTQ+ people are also underrepresented in politics and policy journalism and in newsroom leadership,” The 19th reports, “which influences what stories are told, how the news is covered and whose voices are elevated.”
Additional news winners include:
ABC’s The View: “Elliot Page Talks Season 4 of ‘The Umbrella Academy,’ Fighting Anti-LGBTQ Legislation.”
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Spanish language outlets and stories were also honored, including:
Telemundo Colorado for Periodismo televisivo sobresaliente (Outstanding TV Journalism): “Más Allá de los Pronombres;”
APNews.com, KFFHealthNews.org and Univision.com for Artículo sobresaliente de periodismo digital (Outstanding Online Journalism Article): “Jóvenes latinos gay ven un porcentaje creciente de nuevos casos de VIH en EEUU”
Fuerza Latina – DW Español – Periodismo digital sobresaliente – video o multimedia (Outstanding Online Journalism – Video or Multimedia): “La investigadora que buscaba su identidad” por Natalia Orozco, Cristina Gleinig y Carlos Delgado
The GLAAD Media Awards will stream on Hulu beginning April 12th.