Arts & Entertainment
GLAAD Media Awards announces 2019 nominees
‘Pose,’ The Favorite,’ ‘Love, Simon’ and more honored for LGBT-inclusivity
The 30th annual GLAAD Media Awards were announced on Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah by “Pose” star
This year GLAAD expanded its nominations in the Outstanding Film – Limited Release category from five nominees to 10. The nominees include “The Favourite,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” “Boy Erased and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” among others. As for the Outstanding Film – Wide Release category, the teen rom-com “Love, Simon” and Marvel superhero sequel “Deadpool 2” were among the nominees.
For television, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon collectively received the most nominations with 11.
FX’s “Pose,” which made history as the first scripted television series to include a majority transgender cast, was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series along with “Supergirl” (CW), “Billions” (Showtime) and more.
This year GLAAD also opened up the awards to recognize LGBT-inclusive content in video games as well.
“GLAAD has always leveraged diverse forms of media to share LGBTQ stories which change hearts and minds, and as the video game industry reaches new heights of popularity and influence, it is imperative that LGBTQ people and issues are included in fair and accurate ways,” Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD President and CEO, said in a statement.
In GLAAD’s music categories, J
“The images and stories recognized by the GLAAD Media Awards over the past 30 years raised the bar for LGBTQ inclusion in the media industry and changed the hearts and minds of countless audience members around the world,” Ellis said. “This year’s nominees are changing the game by showcasing diverse races, genders, religions, ages, geographies, and genres in ways that challenge misconceptions and inspire LGBTQ acceptance. The 30th anniversary of the GLAAD Media Awards will honor these groundbreaking new LGBTQ stories while remembering the astounding positive cultural change that LGBTQ media representations have achieved.”
The GLAAD Media Awards will be held in a bi-coastal celebration on Thursday, March 28 in Los Angeles at The Beverly Hilton and Saturday, May 4 in New York City at the Hilton Midtown.
Check out the list of nominees below.
Outstanding Film – Wide Release
“Blockers” (Universal)
“Crazy Rich Asians” (Warner Bros.)
“Deadpool 2” (20th Century Fox)
“The Girl in the Spider’s Web” (Sony Pictures)
“Love, Simon” (20th Century Fox)
Outstanding
“1985” (Wolfe Releasing)
“Boy Erased” (Focus Features)
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (Fox Searchlight)
“Disobedience” (Bleecker Street)
“The Favourite” (Fox Searchlight)
“Hearts Beat Loud” (Gunpowder & Sky)
“A Kid Like Jake” (IFC Films)
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” (FilmRise)
“Saturday Church” (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
“We the Animals” (The Orchard)
Outstanding Drama Series
“Billions” (Showtime)
“Black Lightning” (The CW)
“Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC)
“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)
“Instinct” (CBS)
“Pose” (FX)
“Shadowhunters” (Freeform)
“Star” (Fox)
“Supergirl” (The CW)
“Wynonna Earp” (Syfy)
Outstanding Comedy Series
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (FOX)*
“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (The CW)
“Dear White People” (Netflix)
“Modern Family” (ABC)
“One Day at a Time” (Netflix)
“Schitt’s Creek” (Pop)
“Superstore” (NBC)
“This Close” (Sundance Now)
“Vida” (Starz)
“Will & Grace” (NBC)
*Note: Brooklyn Nine-Nine now airs on NBC
Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series w/o a regular LGBTQ character)
“King in the North”-“Fresh Off the Boat” (ABC)
“Prom” -“Fuller House” (Netflix)
“Service” – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC)
“She”- “The Good Doctor” (ABC)
“Someplace Other Than Here”-“The Guest Book” (TBS)
Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series
“American Horror Story: Apocalypse” (FX)
“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
“Life-Size 2” (Freeform)
“Sense8” (Netflix)
“A Very English Scandal” (Amazon Prime)
Outstanding Documentary
“Believer” (HBO)
“Call Her Ganda” (Breaking Glass Pictures)
“My House” (
“Quiet Heroes” (Logo)
“When the Beat Drops” (Logo)
Outstanding Kids & Family Programming
“Adventure Time” (Cartoon Network)
“Andi Mack” (The Disney Channel)
“Anne with an E” (Netflix)
“She-Ra” (Netflix)
“Steven Universe” (Cartoon Network)
Outstanding Reality Program
“American Idol” (ABC)
“I Am Jazz” (TLC)
“Love & Hip Hop” (VH1)
“Queer Eye” (Netflix)
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” (VH1)
Outstanding Music Artist
Brandi Carlile, “By the Way, I Forgive You” (Low Country Sound/Elektra)
Brockhampton, “Iridescence” (RCA)
Christine and the Queens, “Chris” (
Hayley Kiyoko, “Expectations” (Atlantic)
Janelle Monáe, “Dirty Computer” (Bad Boy Records)
Kim Petras, “Turn Off the Light, Vol. 1” (BunHead)
Shea Diamond, “Seen It All” (Asylum Worldwide)
Sophie, “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” (Future Classics)
Troye Sivan, “Bloom” (Capitol Records)
Years & Years, “Palo Santo” (Polydor)
Outstanding Comic Book
“Batwoman,” written by Marguerite Bennett, K. Perkins (DC Comics)
“Bingo Love,” written by Tee Franklin (Image Comics)
“Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles,” written by Mark Russell (DC Comics)
“Fence,” written by C.S. Pacat (BOOM! Studios)
“Iceman,” written by Sina Grace (Marvel Comics)
“Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass,” written by Lilah Sturges (BOOM! Studios)
“Oh S#!t It’s Kim & Kim,” written by Magdalene Visaggio (Black Mask Comics)
“Runaways,” written by Rainbow Rowell (Marvel Comics)
“Star Wars: Doctor Aphra,” written by Kieron Gillen, Simon Spurrier (Marvel Comics)
“Strangers in Paradise XXV,” written by Terry Moore (Abstract Studio)
Outstanding Video Game
“Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey” (Ubisoft)
“The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset” (Bethesda Softworks)
“Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire” (ArenaNet)
“Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire” (Versus Evil)
“The Sims Mobile” (Electronic Arts)
Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode
“Mike Pence and ‘A Day in the Life of Marlon
“NRA Problems, Chicken Bone Problems, Birmingham Problems” -“Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas “(HBO)
“Trans Rights Under Attack” -“Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” (TBS)
“Troye Sivan Hopes ‘Boy Erased’ Reaches All Parents”- “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS)
“Valedictorian Seth Owen”-“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated)
Outstanding TV
“Conversion Therapy: God Only Knows” -“CBS Sunday Morning” (CBS)
“Gender: The Space Between”- “CBS News” (CBS)
“Legacy of Hope” -“Nightline” (ABC)
“Respect” -“SC Featured” (ESPN)
“South Texas Pride” [series]- “KSAT News” (KSAT-TV [San Antonio, Texas])
Outstanding TV Journalism Segment
“Historic Number of LGBTQ Candidates on Ballots This Year”- “NBC Nightly News” (NBC)
“Mississippi Town Denies Pride Parade”- “Vice News Tonight” (HBO)
“Olympian Adam Rippon”- “New Day” (CNN)
“Same-sex Couple Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling” -“CNN Tonight with Don Lemon” (CNN)
“Trump: ‘Looking Very Seriously’ at Changing Transgender Definition” -“Velshi & Ruhle” (MSNBC)
Outstanding Newspaper Article
“He Took a Drug to Prevent AIDS. Then He Couldn’t Get Disability Insurance.” by Donald G. McNeil Jr. (The New York Times)
“LGBTQ Parents Challenge Stereotypes in China” by Sue-Lin Wong, Jason Lee (Reuters)
“‘More Than Fear’: Brazil’s LGBT Community Dreads Looming Bolsonaro Presidency” by Marina Lopes (The Washington Post)
“Pistons’ Reggie Bullock to Transgender Community: ‘I see y’all as people that I love'” by Malika Andrews (Chicago Tribune)
“Transgender Students Asked Betsy DeVos for Help. Here’s What Happened.” by Caitlin Emma (Politico)
Outstanding Magazine Article
“21 Transgender Stars, Creators Sound Off on Hollywood: ‘I Want to Portray These Characters, and I’m Ready'” by Chris Gardner, Rebecca Sun, Lindsay Weinberg, Joelle Goldstein, Bryan White (The Hollywood Reporter)
“Can a Transgender Woman Get Justice in Texas?” by Nate Blakeslee (Texas Monthly)
“Ex-Scientologist Michelle LeClair Says Church Officials Humiliated Her After She Came Out as Gay” by Johnny Dodd, Tierney McAfee (People)
“Lena Waithe is Changing the Game” by Jacqueline Woodson (Vanity Fair)
“They are the Champions” by Katie Barnes (ESPN The Magazine)
Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage
Billboard
Ebony
Entertainment Weekly
GQ
Variety
Outstanding Digital Journalism Article
“Across U.S., LGBTQ Christians Try to Change Hearts and Minds From the Pews” by Julie Compton (NBCNews.com)
“Bermuda Same-sex Marriage Ban Means Trouble for Tourism and Cruise Ships” by Ryan Ruggiero (CNBC.com)
“Deadnamed” by Lucas Waldron, Ken Schwencke (ProPublica.org)
“LGBTQ Caravan Migrants Marry While Waiting for Asylum in Tijuana” by Sarah Kinosian (INTOmore.com)
“Workplaces Need to Prepare for the Non-Binary Future” by Samantha Allen (TheDailyBeast.com)
Outstanding Digital Journalism – Video or Multimedia
“I Was Jailed for Raising the Pride Flag in Egypt” by Amro Helmy (Buzzfeed Video)
“The Latinx Drag Queens Spearheading HIV Activism on the Border” by Paola Ramos (Vice.com)
“March for Our Lives and LGBT activism: ‘They’re definitely linked for me,’ says Emma González” by Beth Greenfield (Yahoo! Lifestyle)
“Marielle and Monica: The LGBT Activists Resisting Bolsonaro’s Brazil” by Fabio Erdos, Marina Costa, Charlie Phillips, Jacqueline Edenbrow (TheGuardian.com)
“Trans Model Aaron Philip is Making a Space for Disabilities on the Runway” (NowThis)
Outstanding Blog
Gays With Kids
Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
My Fabulous Disease
Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
TransGriot
Special Recognition
“Nanette” (Netflix)
“TransMilitary” (Logo)
SPANISH-LANGUAGE NOMINEES
Outstanding Scripted Television Series (Spanish-Language)
“Élite” (Netflix)
“Mi familia perfecta” (Telemundo)
“Mi marido tiene más familia” (Univision)
“Papá a toda madre” (Univision)
Outstanding TV
“Denuncian trabas migratorias contra la comunidad transgénero”- “Un Nuevo Dia” (Telemundo)
“Entrevista con Luis Sandoval para National Coming Out Day” -“Despierta América” (Univision)
“No es fácil en EEUU ser un gay latino” -“Noticias Telemundo Mediodía” (Telemundo)
“La primera escuela para niños transgénero de Chile” -“Nuestro Mundo” (CNN en Español)
Outstanding TV Journalism Segment (Spanish-Language)
“Entrevista con Pat ‘Cacahuate’ Manuel”- “NoticiasYa Tampa Bay” (Univision)
“LAFC Pride Republic” -“Noticiero Univision Los Ángeles” (Univision)
“Madre hispana lucha contra un agresivo cáncer seno” -“Noticias Univision Arizona” (Univision)
“Primera Pareja Gay en Casarse en un Consulado Mexicano”- “Noticias Telemundo Mediodía” (Telemundo)
“Transpesina”- “Univision 21 Fresno” (Univision)
Outstanding Digital Journalism (Spanish-Language)
“Apoyo y recursos para jóvenes LGBTQ y sus familias” por Virginia Gaglianone (LaOpinion.com)
“Así pinta la televisión hispana a los personajes LGBTQ, una representación preocupante” por Daniel Shoer Roth (ElNuevoHerald.com)
“Dallas: Para jóvenes LGBT con DACA, la lucha ha sido salir de dos clósets” por Jenny Manrique (AlDiaDallas.com)
“De la censura a la celebración: la historia de una exposición queer en Brasil” por Ernesto Londoño (NewYorkTimes.com/es)
“Desaliento y miedo en medio de celebración del Orgullo LGBT en NYC” por José Martínez (ElDiarioNY.com)
Special Recognition (Spanish-Language)
“House of Mamis” (INTOmore.com)
Arts & Entertainment
In an act of artistic defiance, Baltimore Center Stage stays focused on DEI
‘Maybe it’s a triple-down’
By LESLIE GRAY STREETER | I’m always tickled when people complain about artists “going political.” The inherent nature of art, of creation and free expression, is political. This becomes obvious when entire governments try to threaten it out of existence, like in 2025, when the brand-new presidential administration demanded organizations halt so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming or risk federal funding.
Baltimore Center Stage’s response? A resounding and hearty “Nah.” A year later, they’re still doubling down on diversity.
“Maybe it’s a triple-down,” said Ken-Matt Martin, the theater’s producing director, chuckling.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
‘La Lucci’
By Susan Lucci with Laura Morton
c.2026, Blackstone Publishing
$29.99/196 pages
They’re among the world’s greatest love stories.
You know them well: Marc Antony and Cleopatra. Abelard and Heloise. Phoebe and Langley. Cliff and Nina. Jesse and Angie, Opal and Palmer, Palmer and Daisy, Tad and Dixie. Now read “La Lucci” by Susan Lucci, with Laura Morton, and you might also think of Susan and Helmut.
When she was a very small girl, Susan Lucci loved to perform. Also when she was young, she learned that words have power. She vowed to use them for good for the rest of her life.
Her parents, she says, were supportive and her family, loving. Because of her Italian heritage, she was “ethnic looking” but Lucci’s mother was careful to point out dark-haired beauties on TV and elsewhere, giving Lucci a foundation of confidence.
That’s just one of the things for which Lucci says she’s grateful. In fact, she says, “Prayers of gratitude are how I begin and end each day.”
She is particularly grateful for becoming a mother to her two adult children, and to the doctors who saved her son’s life when he was a newborn.
Lucci writes about gratitude for her long career. She was a keystone character on TV’s “All My Children,” and she learned a lot from older actors on the show, and from Agnes Nixon, the creator of it. She says she still keeps in touch with many of her former costars.
She is thankful for her mother’s caretakers, who stepped in when dementia struck. Grateful for more doctors, who did heart-saving work when Lucci had a clogged artery. Grateful for friends, opportunities, life, grandchildren, and a career that continues.
And she’s grateful for the love she shared with her husband, Helmut Huber, who died nearly four years ago. Grateful for the chance to grieve, to heal, and to continue.
And yet, she says of her husband: “He was never timid, but I know he was afraid at the end, and that kills me down to my soul.”
“It’s been 15 years since Erica Kane and I parted ways,” says author Susan Lucci (with Laura Morton), and she says that people still approach her to confirm or deny rumors of the show’s resurrection. There’s still no answer to that here (sorry, fans), but what you’ll find inside “La Lucci” is still exceptionally generous.
If this book were just filled with stories, you’d like it just fine. If it was only about Lucci’s faith and her gratitude – words that happen to appear very frequently here – you’d still like reading it. But Lucci tells her stories of family, children and “All My Children,” while also offering help to couples who’ve endured miscarriage, women who’ve had heart problems, and widow(ers) who are spinning and need the kindness of someone who’s lived loss, too.
These are the other things you’ll find in “La Lucci,” in a voice you’ll hear in your head, if you spent your lunch hours glued to the TV back in the day. It’s a comfortable, fun read for fans. It’s a story you’ll love.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
Theater
Minimal version of ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ heading to Dupont Underground
Director Nick Westrate on this traveling take on Williams’s masterwork
‘A Streetcar Named Desire’
Produced by The Streetcar Project
April 20-May 4
Dupont Underground
19 Dupont Circle, N.W.
Tickets start at $85.
Dupontunderground.org
An aggressively minimal version of Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” is poised to run at Dupont Underground (April 20-May 4), the nonprofit cultural space located in a repurposed, abandoned 1949 streetcar station beneath Dupont Circle.
The Streetcar Project’s production performs in site-specific spaces. It’s almost entirely without design elements. There is no steamy, cramped Vieux Carré apartment. You won’t see Blanche’s battered trunk exploding with cheap finery, faded love letters, and demands for back property taxes, or the familiar costumes.
Co-created by Lucy Owen (who stars as Blanche DuBois) and out director Nick Westrate in 2023, this traveling spare take on Williams’s masterwork about a fragile woman on the margins in conflict with her brutish brother-in-law seems a reaction to necessity. It’s also an exploration of whether, like Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” it can subsist on language alone.
With little distractions (even Blanche’s cultivated southern belle accent has been daringly stripped away), the spotlight shines almost solely on text. “This play holds that,” says Westrate, 42. “I remind the actors that the while there is plenty of movement, language is really the only game in town.”
New York-based Westrate, who’s best known as an esteemed actor with New York and regional credits including Prior Walter in János Szász’s production of “Angels in America” at Arena Stage, describes “Streetcar” as “the most perfect play on earth” but not one he thinks of acting in (“I’m not right for Stanley Kowalski or Mitch”) though he agreed to direct.
“These days if you’re not a not a movie star or an established director, you’re not likely to do “Streetcar.” So, for us, we have to be able to do it with almost nothing, on the New York subway if necessary. And that’s kind of how we built it.”
Westrate first experienced Dupont Underground while attending a staged reading. He was so obsessed with the space as a prospective place to take the production, he found it hard to concentrate. He says, “With its long, curved track and tunnel, Dupont Underground is a terrifying, beautiful room that carries so much metaphorical weight, so much possibility for our production.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Is finding the right space for this “Streetcar” part of the thrill?
NICK WESTRATE: Whenever I enter a weird room or pass by an abandoned CVS, I try to figure out how we might do the show there, especially places that are dilapidated, architecturally odd, or possibly haunted. And each space we use, lends something to the production. The Rachel Comey store in Soho was a very Blanche coded space. And an artist’s workshop on Venice Beach in California with its huge saws and metal hooks lent raw imagery. The scenes between Blanche and Stanley near the end were absolutely terrifying.
BLADE: More recently that same bare bones production has played in more traditional spaces like the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen and San Francisco’s A.C.T. Is it hard to now go to Dupont Underground?
WESTRATE: Each time we do this we have to crack open the play again because the staging is entirely new, but we’re used to performing in unusual spaces and Dupont Underground rather takes us back to form. As a former streetcar station, it’s the most appropriate space we’ve had yet.
The cast will literally act on streetcar tracks and go without dressing rooms but they’re game, and because they have history and authorship over the work, the sacrifice is more meaningful than if they were just some hired guns.
BLADE: Audiences have an expectation, especially with a work they’re likely to know. How do they react seeing such an unadorned take on Williams’s American classic?
WESTRATE: For the first 10 or 15 minutes, they’re unsure. Then, you can pretty much see the audience members’ brains click in and their imaginations turn on. It’s like they’re scratching an itch that they didn’t even know they had.
BLADE: Did you and Lucy foresee gaining this kind of momentum behind your vision?
WESTRATE: Absolutely not. Lucy had a philosophy that we’ll just walk through open doors. Early on, we were given spaces and artists filled the seats, and increasingly we’ve begun to rent some spaces and attract more regular theatergoers.
We basically sell tickets in order to pay a living wage to artists involved. There isn’t some big institution or commercial producer who’s getting a lot of money from this. Audiences of all types seem to respond to this mode of making theater.
BLADE: In presenting “Streetcar” intermittently, usually with the same cast over three years in wildly varying venues, have you learned more about a piece that you already loved?
WESTRATE: Mostly I’ve come to realize that Blanche is the smartest character I’ve ever read in a play. She’s like Hamlet – tormented by dreams and terrified of death. She’s skilled at wordplay and always ahead of everyone else in the room. Also like Hamlet, people think she’s insane and she uses that to her advantage.
Blanche is certainly the Everest of roles for actresses and watching Lucy sort of break it apart in a different way than you’ve ever seen, and knowing that I’ve helped to facilitate this performance has been one of the great joys of my career.
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