2002 - 13th Annual GLAAD Media Awards

Outstanding Film: Limited Release
Punks
Urbanworld Films
This sparkling, music-driven romantic comedy is the story of four close-knit friends trying to find that mythical relationship that will make finally make everything right. The hunky straight guy next door is making that struggle much more complex. The first-ever comic love story set amidst the world of African-American gay men, Punks is full of wit and energy, alternately hilarious and serious. Punks is the feature debut of writer-director Patrik-Ian Polk.

Outstanding Drama Series
Six Feet Under (winner)
HBO
Alan Ball's brilliant, critically acclaimed drama is set in a family-run funeral home. The wonderfully dysfunctional family includes David, who is deeply in the closet but dating a openly gay police officer. As David struggles with his religious beliefs and his relationship with mother, viewers are offered a vivid and revealing portrait of a gay man struggling to live an authentic life.

Outstanding Television Movie
Stranger Inside
HBO
Stranger Inside, directed by Cheryl Dunye, is the story of Treasure Lee, a 21-year-old convict who is trying to find Brownie, the mother she never knew. When she learns Brownie is serving a life sentence for murder, Treasure gets herself transferred to the same prison. Dunye's in-depth research in women's prisons lends credibility to this portrait of the lives of female prisoners - including the loving (and not so loving) relationships they form to survive.

Outstanding TV Journalism
"The Face of AIDS"
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
PBS
Betty Ann Bowser reports on African American men who have sex with other men, but do not necessarily self-identify as gay. In this piece, she interviews many leaders in the African American community who are working to develop HIV prevention messages for these men and their partners.

Outstanding Newspaper Columnist
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
Pitts' The Miami Herald column (which also runs in newspapers around the country) often focuses attention on the need to overcome personal and cultural prejudice and bigotry, emphasizing the importance of civil equality for LGBT people.

Outstanding Magazine Article
"A Question of Identity"
by Malcolm Venable
Vibe
Malcolm Venable takes a fascinating look at the "homo thug" culture, where young African American gay men intersect with the hyper-masculine and often homophobic world of hip hop. Pulled in conflicting directions, these young men often feel they must choose between expressing their sexuality and maintaining their hip hop authenticity.

Outstanding New York Theater Production: Broadway & Off-Broadway
Four
by Christopher Shinn
Tribeca Playhouse
Christopher Shinn's Four is set in Hartford, Conn., and follows four characters on one Fourth of July night in 1996. We meet June, a shy sixteen year old boy who is in anguish over his repressed homosexuality. We meet Abigayle, an attractive African American girl of roughly the same age who longs to go out and enjoy the festivities but feels obliged to stay at home with her bedridden mother. We meet Dexter, a young white kid from a rougher neighborhood in Hartford who is pursuing Abigayle. Finally, we meet Joe, Abigayle's father, a handsome man in his forties who is meeting June tonight for a date. Tense and moody, Four would be a tragedy, only June and Joe and Abigayle and Dexter don't see it that way.

Outstanding New York Theater Production: Off-Off-Broadway
Shequida's Opera for Dummies
by Gary Hall
Westbeth Theatre Center
If it weren't for Shequida, those unschooled in opera would never know the joys of the art form. And with Shequida, those joys abound. In Shequida's Opera For Dummies, the diva guides the audience through the history of opera from 1600 right on to 20th century musical theater, singing famous arias and telling lots of fabulous anecdotes along the way. Apparently the only drag opera star to be trained at Juilliard, Shequida boasts an impressive five-octave range, and, in between songs, she provides humorous insights on the development of opera.