TIP SHEET: DIVERSITY, FACTS, AND FIGURES FOR THE 31ST ANNUAL GLAAD MEDIA AWARDS

Please find a press release with the complete list of nominees for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards at /releases.

Additional facts, figures, and statements on the diversity of this year’s nominees follows.

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOMINEES: 176

(148 English, 28 Spanish-language)

TOTAL NUMBER OF GLAAD MEDIA AWARDS CATEGORIES: 30

(24 English, 6 Spanish-language)

CRITERIA FOR NOMINATION:

GLAAD Media Awards nominees are selected using the following four criteria:

• Fair, Accurate, and Inclusive Representations – Rather than portraying the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community using broad stereotypes, the project deals with the characters or themes in a fair, accurate, and multi-dimensional manner. Inclusive speaks to the importance of having the diversity of the LGBTQ community represented in our nominees.
• Boldness and Originality – The project breaks new ground by exploring LGBTQ subject matter in non-traditional ways, and handles the LGBTQ content in a fresh and original manner.
• Impact – The media project dramatically increases the cultural dialogue about LGBTQ issues, or reaches an audience that is not regularly exposed to LGBTQ images and issues. The project has significant cultural impact.
• Overall Quality – A project of extremely high quality adds significance to the images and issues portrayed and draws more viewers or readers to the material. Fair, accurate, and inclusive images may be weakened when they are part of a poor-quality project.

FACTS ABOUT THE NOMINEES:

Cable saw a total of 31 nominees, with streaming services receiving 22 nominations, and broadcast networks receiving 19 nominations. Netflix scored the most nominations of any network with a total of 15 nominees, followed by HBO with 8 nominees. ABC, CBS, and NBC each earned 4 nominations. Apple TV+ and Disney+ received their first nominations for Dickinson and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, respectively. Long-running shows including ABC’s The Bachelor in Paradise and MTV’s Are You The One? received their first nominations in the Outstanding Reality Program category. ABC’s Nightline received two nominations in the Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine category and MSNBC received two nominations in the Outstanding TV Journalism Segment category. Univision received 7 nominations in Spanish-Language categories.

The Outstanding Kids & Family Programming category expanded to ten nominees as a result of an increase in LGBTQ images across the kids and family television programming and an increase in GLAAD’s work to advocate for inclusion in this genre. The ten nominees air on eight different networks: Cartoon Network, Disney+, The Disney Channel, Hulu, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and PBS. GLAAD introduced this category at the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.

As racial and ethnic diversity continues to grow within the media industry, this year’s nominees include powerful and impactful stories about LGBTQ people of color. The Outstanding Film – Limited Release film category includes five films from Spain, Mexico, and South America: End of the Century, The Heiresses, Pain & Glory, Socrates, and This Is Not Berlin. It also includes two films from Africa: Kanarie (South Africa) and Rafiki (Kenya).

Several of the nominated television series include series leads that are LGBTQ people of color, including: Euphoria, Killing Eve, The L Word: Generation Q, Pose, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Dear White People, One Day at a Time, Superstore, Vida, and Tales of the City.

Stories of LGBTQ people of color were also featured in talk show and journalism nominees such as: “Billy Porter Serves Cataract Realness, Fashion, and Tonys” (The View), “Lilly Is Struggling to Date Women” (A Little Late with Lilly Singh), “Am I Next? Trans and Targeted” (Nightline), “Rainbow Railroad” (60 Minutes), “Black and Trans in Texas” (Vice News Tonight), “Laverne Cox: We exist, we deserve human rights” Up with David Gura (MSNBC), “Ryan Russell Reveals His Truth” (ESPN), “L.G.B.T.Q. Community Finds ‘Sense of Home’ in the Bronx” by Rick Rojas (The New York Times), “Texas Leads the Nation in Transgender Murders. After the Latest Attack, the Dallas Trans Community Asks Why” by Lauren McGaughy (The Dallas Morning News), “In Her Element: Geena Rocero” (Playboy), “Indya Moore Just Wants to Be Free” by Jada Yuan (ELLE), “The Trans Obituaries Project” by Raquel Willis (OUT) and “‘This Time is Real’: Taiwan Counts Down to Asia’s First Same-Sex Weddings” by Beh Lih Yi (Openlynews.com).

Several nominees featured outstanding portrayals of lesbian and bisexual women, including: Bombshell, Booksmart, Adam, The Heiresses, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Rafiki, Batwoman, Euphoria, Killing Eve, The L Word: Generation Q, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Dear White People, Dickinson, One Day at a Time, Supergirl, Vida, Work in Progress, “Love” Drunk History, “Spontaneous Combustion” Easy, Deadwood: The Movie, Let It Snow, Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story, Tales of the City, Twelve Forever. Talk shows and news stories about queer women included “Lilly Is Struggling to Date Women” (A Little Late with Lilly Singh), “2019 Sportsperson of the Year: Megan Rapinoe” by Jenny Vrentas (Sports Illustrated), and “Trump Administration to LGBT Couples: Your ‘Out of Wedlock’ Kids Aren’t Citizens” by Scott Bixby (TheDailyBeast.com).

Media portrayals of transgender people and issues continues to improve. Six of the ten nominees for Outstanding Drama Series category include one or more transgender characters: Billions, Euphoria, The L Word: Generation Q, The Politician, Pose, and Supergirl. Other nominees featuring transgender people include: Adam, Leitis in Waiting, State of Pride, Wig, Dear White People, Work in Progress, “Love” Drunk History, Transparent: Musicale Finale, Mrs. Fletcher, The Red Line, Tales of the City, When They See Us, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Are You The One?, I Am Jazz, “Jacob Tobia – Promoting a ‘Gender-Chill’ Exploration of Identity with ‘Sissy'” (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah), “Jonathan Van Ness: Honey, She’s An Onion With All Sorts of Layers” (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert). Pop star Kim Petras, who is transgender, is nominated for Outstanding Music Artist.

Many news nominees specifically highlighted the issues affecting the trans community. Included among the nominees: “Am I Next? Trans and Targeted” (Nightline), “Black and Trans in Texas” (Vice News Tonight), “Laverne Cox: We exist, we deserve human rights” Up with David Gura (MSNBC), “Texas Leads the Nation in Transgender Murders. After the Latest Attack, the Dallas Trans Community Asks Why” by Lauren McGaughy (The Dallas Morning News), “In Her Element: Geena Rocero” (Playboy), “Indya Moore Just Wants to Be Free” by Jada Yuan (ELLE), “The Trans Obituaries Project” by Raquel Willis (OUT), “Finding the truth about transgender athletes in women’s sports” [series] by Cyd Zeigler and Dawn Ennis (Outsports.com), “How a New Class of Trans Male Actors Are Changing the Face of Television” by Trish Bendix (TIME.com), and “When Transgender Travelers Walk Into Scanners, Invasive Searches Sometimes Wait on the Other Side” by Lucas Waldron, Brenda Medina (ProPublica.org).

People who are bisexual+ make of the majority of the LGBTQ community, however they are still underrepresented in media and portrayals are often sensationalized or inaccurate. However, this past year saw a growing number of nomination-worthy media projects. Six of the ten nominees for Outstanding Drama Series and four of the nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series include one or more bi+ characters: Batwoman, Euphoria, Killing Eve, The L Word: Generation Q, The Politician, and Shadowhunters, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Dickinson, Schitt’s Creek and Vida. Other nominees featuring bi+ people include: Adam, Rent: Live, Transparent: Musicale Finale, Mrs. Fletcher, Tales of the City, The Loud House, Are You The One?, Bachelor in Paradise, “Lilly Is Struggling to Date Women” (A Little Late with Lilly Singh), and “Ryan Russell Reveals His Truth” (ESPN).

Several nominees included LGBTQ people living with HIV, including: Pose, Rent: Live, Transparent: Musicale Finale, Tales of the City, and The Inheritance. News nominees featuring people living with HIV include: “ABC News Pride Day,” “All Her Sons” (CBS Sunday Morning), “Jonathan Van Ness: Honey, She’s An Onion With All Sorts of Layers” (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), and “Trump Pledged to End the HIV Epidemic. San Francisco Could Get There First” by Maria L. La Ganga (Los Angeles Times).

GLAAD presents non-competitive Special Recognition Awards to media projects that do not fit into one of the existing GLAAD Media Awards categories. This year, GLAAD is acknowledging: Special, a Netflix short-form coming-of-age comedy series about a gay man with cerebral palsy; and two LGBTQ journalists – Karen Ocamb and Mark Segal – for their individual work, as well as the critical continued role that LGBTQ media play in driving LGBTQ acceptance forward.
 

MULTIPLE NOMINEES:

Film Distributors
Breaking Glass Pictures (2)

Broadcast Networks [19 total]
ABC (4)
NBC (4)
CBS (4)
The CW (2)
PBS (2)                       

Cable Networks [31 total]
HBO (8)
Comedy Central (3)
Showtime (3)   
MSNBC (2)      
MTV (2)

Streaming Networks [22 total]
Netflix (15)
Amazon (2)

Print & Digital Journalism
TIME (2)          
OUT (2)

Comic Book Publishers
BOOM! Studios (2)       
First Second (2)
Image Comics (2)
Marvel Comics (2)

Spanish-Language Broadcast Networks [13 total]
Univision (7)
Telemundo (4)

Spanish-Language Cable Networks [4 total]
CNN en Español (4)

Print & Digital Journalism
BBC Mundo (2)