2003 - 14th Annual GLAAD Media Awards

Outstanding Film: Limited Release
8 Women
Focus Features
In the latest film from acclaimed director Francois Ozon, eight women gather in an isolated country mansion for a Christmas celebration with the family patriarch. When the patriarch is murdered, it is revealed that each woman had a motive and a secret. As everyone's secrets are uncovered, three of the women reveal "Sapphic" tendencies. A comedic blend of Douglas Sirk and Agatha Christie, 8 Women plays like a '50s pulp fiction novel come to life.

Outstanding Drama Series
The Shield
FX
In the tough and morally ambiguous world of law enforcement, where the line between good and bad is crossed daily, a group of corrupt but effective cops is led by a captain torn between bringing them down and advancing his own political ambitions. The honest rookie on the squad, Officer Julien Lowe, is also a closeted gay man with strong Christian beliefs. Initially, he can't resist the charming Tomás, but his internal struggle with his sexual orientation leads him to reject Tomás and seek out "reparative therapy" through his church.

Six Feet Under (winner)
HBO
In this compelling drama set against the backdrop of life and death in a funeral home, David is a gay man struggling to maintain a relationship with Keith an openly gay police officer. As their relationship unfolds, cracks appear in Keith's solid exterior as he and David parent Keith's young niece. In another storyline, Rico, a Fisher & Sons employee, struggles with his own homophobia as he walks in on his best friend having sex with a man.

The Wire
HBO
Told from the dual perspective of the cops and the drug dealers, The Wire tells the story of a Baltimore police investigation into gang leader Avon Barksdale's drug running operation. Detective McNulty leads a rag-tag investigation but finds an ally in openly lesbian police officer Shakima Greggs. One of Barksdale's enemies is another drug dealer named Omar. When Barksdale kills Omar's lover Brandon, Omar agrees to be a police informant in order to take revenge for his lover's death.

Outstanding Documentary
Gay Weddings
Bravo
Airing for one-hour per night for four consecutive nights, this film portrayed the wedding travails of four Southern California couples (two lesbian, two gay). Their stories reveal the tension between the complex dynamics of weddings and the equally complex family dynamics of acknowledgment and acceptance. Some families in the documentary don't consider their children to be getting married at all, while others participate fully in the joyous occasion.

Middle School Confessions
HBO
Middle School Confessions presents a candid and sometimes disturbing look at the inner lives of today's middle school students, including several openly gay 13 and 14 year old kids. Interviews with the kids and their parents reveal the verbal and physical abuse they suffer at school, as well as the freedom they experience when they meet other gay and lesbian youth.

Outstanding Newspaper Article
"Gay Muslims Face a Growing Challenge Reconciling Their Two Identities"
by Robert F. Worth
The New York Times
Interviews with members of Al-Fatiha and the Gay and Lesbian Arab Society of New York explore the dangers of being gay and Muslim. In addition to overcoming their own deeply ingrained internalized homophobia, gay Muslims must also face hatred from Americans anxious to lay blame for September 11th, and fundamentalist Muslims who would kill them for being gay. In 2001, an extremist Muslim group issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, declaring that any member of Al-Fatiha was an apostate, and that the punishment for apostasy is death.

Outstanding Newspaper Columnist
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
Pitts' syndicated Miami Herald column often addresses the need to overcome personal and cultural homophobia, and the importance of civil equality for LGBT people. This year he criticized the Catholic Church for blaming gay priests for the sexual abuse scandal, and the U.S. military for being more afraid of openly gay Arabic language translators than of Arabic speaking terrorists.

Outstanding Music Album
Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape
Meshell Ndegeocello
Maverick Records
Ndegeocello uses her music and her lyrics as a powerful outlet for her spiritual, sexual and political convictions. Cookie is perhaps her most personal work, and includes sound samples from Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan, Dick Gregory and other influential African American writers and orators. Ndegeocello is not afraid to clearly acknowledge her attraction to women, and in her world, the body and the heavens are equally sacred.

Outstanding Comic Book
X-Statix
by Peter Milligan
Marvel Comics
Peter Milligan's take on Marvel's X-Men universe is a subversive look at society's obsession with money, power and fame. The X-Statix team is filled with mutants who help society, but who are more concerned with how much money they make from their action figures and their public appearances in shopping malls. In order to get additional publicity for themselves, team members Phat and Vivisector began dating each other. Eventually both men realized that it wasn't just an act -- they really were gay. Both of them came out as openly gay mutants.

Outstanding New York Theater Production: Off-Off-Broadway
A to B
by Ricardo A. Bracho
INTAR Hispanic Arts Center
Directed by filmmaker Ela Troyano, A to B tells the story of A, a bisexual DJ at a gay club and B, a gay Latino man who falls for him. The story of A and B's troubled relationship is interwoven with a film of two different men in a more tender relationship - yet each of the couples experiences a betrayal. A to B is a multimedia love story set in San Francisco's Mission District which addresses complex issues of desire and loss.