Only five more opportunities to see the GLAAD Media Awards, airing on Logo:
Tuesday, July 26 at, 4 AM, 2:30PM, 11:30 PM ET/PT
Wednesday, July 27 at 10:30 AM, 7 PM ET/PT
Friday, July 28 at 6 AM ET/PT
Saturday, July 29 at 2 AM,1 PM ET/PT
Sunday, July 31 at 6 AM ET/PT

How the GLAAD Media Awards Made it to National TV

When they premiered July 24 on MTV Networks' Logo, the GLAAD Media Awards made television history–the first national broadcast honoring the media and entertainment leaders who are advancing cultural understanding and acceptance of our lives. Former GLAAD Executive Director Joan Garry shares her recollections of the GLAAD Media Awards' long trek to prime time, and the accomplished professionals who guided its path.

When I walked into Hollywood's Kodak Theatre for the tech rehearsal on Saturday, April 30, I could hardly believe my eyes.

From the upper reaches of the side balconies, long jib camera cranes flew through the air, capturing sweeping vistas of a towering stage set GLAAD could not have afforded in its wildest dreams. In an aerial ballet, multiple cameras swooped down and in for dramatic close-ups of the presenters before zooming back up to pan across the theater seats with incredible speed, the live camera feeds visible in brilliant, high-res color on the super-sized digital screens mounted high overhead. As tech crews raced across the stage and throughout the theater under the rapid-fire instructions of incredibly focused directors, I saw the production muscle of the industry's most powerful cable television brand harnessed to the efforts of Academy Award-winning producers, and I was stunned.

The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

As I sat there watching that tech rehearsal, I flashed back to my early days as GLAAD's executive director, when I had fantasized about broadening the reach of the awards show beyond the sold-out ballrooms. GLAAD's three events reach almost 5,000 attendees annually, and by reach, I mean REACH. We entertain, we inspire, we touch and we empower our audiences. A television deal would help GLAAD reach millions more in the same way and expand our impact exponentially. It was, as I thought about it then, an unattainable hope, an impossible dream, an incredible fantasy. Nevertheless, we held on to that fantasy as the years passed, as we focused on building a solid organization and expanding capacity for the long term. We moved through our work and through each Media Awards season recognizing the asset, making the most of it for our attendees but still not able to achieve out ultimate goal.

Holding On To The Dream

In 1999, we began researching the possible. We talked with other organizations about their awards shows and held preliminary discussions with producers, agents and media outlets. No one wanted to take the risk.

With McKinsey & Company working with us in 2001 to develop GLAAD's first strategic plan, it was time to put a stake in the ground. We committed to securing a basic cable television home for the event by 2007 at the latest. We were clear: GLAAD's media awards program was a unique and powerful franchise that reached only people lucky enough to be in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco and privileged enough to write a big check. We began searching for a media partner who believed in GLAAD's mission, who would help us stay true to the integrity of our brand and our work and who would help make the event broadly available in basic cable homes across America.

We found that partner at MTV Networks in Brian Graden, president of the passionate and talented team at Logo, the new basic cable channel MTV launched in June. For the past nine months, a dedicated group of extraordinarily gifted people from GLAAD and Logo have pooled all their talents toward a singular purpose–to make a great TV show that entertains and empowers viewers while keeping faith with GLAAD's mission. From the beginning, their commitment, passion and talent has been nothing less than inspirational, and their vision of what this program could be has never wavered.

A Dream Team Comes Together

This production dream team came together around Academy Award-winning producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, MTV's Eileen Opatut and Michael Dempsey, and GLAAD's own Jason Burlingame. And as the team moved forward, the awards show became a labor of love, a work of passion. Some of the best talent in the industry worked long hours at scale (or below). They donated time and creative brilliance. Their passion drew other topflight talent who understood the cause, who cared. And the team grew.

This dream team's labor bore glorious fruit at the Kodak Theatre on April 30. The gift they have given us is simply priceless, for the LGBT community and for our larger society as well.

Thanks to them, millions of people will be introduced to GLAAD's work. Millions will learn more about the media's power to shape how our community is perceived. And many will be empowered to join with GLAAD in our struggle for equality. The show airs July 24 as the centerpiece of a week's worth of special programming on Logo, including an original documentary tracing the history of the awards accompanied by films of nominees over the years– more than we ever dreamed possible.

Making the Vision Real

As I sat in the Kodak Theatre on the last Saturday in April, the Liza Minnelli tribute reel's clips of Judy Garland reminded me of the song she sang as a young woman so many years ago, about a place "where dreams that you dare to dream really do come true." And there I was–sitting in that place. On that magnificent, high-tech stage I could feel the power of our vision.

To our staff, board, donors, sponsors, volunteers, to our much-admired Media Awards partners at Logo, to every single person who threw their hearts and their souls into making this vision a reality, I say thank you. And to Brian Graden for his leadership and for bringing the best possible TV programming talent to the GLAAD table, I offer my heartfelt appreciation. By sharing your skills and talents with GLAAD, each of you has chosen to make our civil rights struggle your own personal responsibility.

And each of you has proven that dreams really do come true.

With deep gratitude,

Joan M. Garry