GLAAD announces nominees for 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards presented by Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo

Los Angeles – GLAAD, the nation's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, announced today the nominees for its 26^th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, presented by Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo. The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community and the issues that affect their lives. The GLAAD Media Awards also fund GLAAD's work to amplify stories from the LGBT community and issues that build support for equality.

Among the nominees: Amazon Instant Video's smash hit Transparent; ABC's How to Get Away with Murder; HBO's Game of Thrones, Looking, and The Normal Heart; Academy Award nominee The Imitation Game and Golden Globe nominee Pride; Love is Strange, starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina; Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word and True Trans with Laura Jane Grace, both documentaries about transgender people; Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel for Nick News with Linda Ellerbee and Good Luck Charlie respectively; To Russia with Love, Oprah Prime, and Outsports.com for interviews with out athletes; MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry; and Sam Smith for his critically acclaimed album In the Lonely Hour.

This year, GLAAD expanded the Outstanding Comedy Series and Drama Series categories from five nominees to a maximum of 10 nominees each. In 2005, GLAAD considered for nomination eight comedy series and 17 drama series with regular LGBT characters. This year, the pool of shows with regular LGBT characters considered for nomination included 52 comedy series and 83 drama series. With over 100 shows including LGBT characters as part of the cast, the number of shows worthy of nomination has also increased. Expanding the number of nominees in these two categories allows GLAAD to recognize more of these outstanding series.

GLAAD also announced that Electronic Arts and BioWare's videogame Dragon Age: Inquisition received a Special Recognition award for the many complex and unique LGBT characters prominently integrated throughout the game. GLAAD's Special Recognition awards are typically given to outstanding media projects for which there is not a competitive category.

Spanish-language nominees include a Special Recognition award for Los Tigres del Norte, the popular Mexican regional band, which released a song about a young girl in love with her female best friend. Other Spanish-language nominees include "Identidad sin fronteras," an episode of the documentary series Panorámica, about transgender Latinas co-presented by Univision and English-language network Pivot. Also nominated were two Puerto Rican outlets, the local Univision affiliate for its coverage of openly lesbian state Supreme Court justice Maité Oronoz, as well as the newspaper El Nuevo Día for a six-part series on transgender people. Realidades en Contexto on CNN en Español was nominated for the second year in a row, this time for its segment on family acceptance of LGBT youth, and Telemundo's morning show Un Nuevo Día for a show on the same important subject.

"For nearly 30 years, the GLAAD Media Awards have raised the bar for inclusion in news and entertainment, transforming LGBT representation in media and moving the dial for acceptance across the globe," said GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. "It's been a remarkable year for equality, and nowhere is that more evident than in the visibility LGBT people have gained across media. This year's nominees, including expanded categories in Outstanding Comedy and Drama Series, reflect the widening diversity of LGBT images and storylines that are closing the gap to full acceptance."

GLAAD announced 104 nominees in 21 English-language categories, and 40 Spanish-language nominees in 10 categories. In the English-language categories, cable networks earned 35 nominations, broadcast networks garnered 15 nominations. Streaming services received three nominations: Amazon Instant Video received its first nomination for Transparent, AOL Originals received its first nomination for True Trans with Laura Jane Grace, while Netflix picked up its second nomination for Orange is the New Black.

For a complete list of nominees, click here. A tip sheet with additional facts and figures about this year's 144 nominees is available here.

The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies will be held in Los Angeles on March 21, 2015 at The Beverly Hilton and in New York on May 9 at the Waldorf Astoria New York.  Special Honorees for each city will be announced in coming weeks. The 26^th Annual GLAAD Media Awards nominees were published, released, or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2014.

To receive the latest updates on the GLAAD Media Awards, follow @glaad on Twitter and use the hashtag #glaadawards.

The 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards corporate partners include: Presenting partners Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo. GLAAD is also grateful to: Platinum partners ABC-Disney Television Group, Allstate Insurance Company, PwC, and Time Warner; Gold partners Nielsen; and Silver partners Citi and Omnicom Group. For a full list of corporate partners and information on how to become a corporate partner, purchase tickets, and place a tribute in the tribute book, please visit www.glaad.org/mediaawards