2004 - 15th Annual GLAAD Media Awards

Outstanding Film - Limited Release
Madame Satã
Wellspring Media, Inc.
Legendary criminal. Proud homosexual. Cabaret star. Passionate lover. Killer. Queen of the Carnivale. Devoted father of seven adopted children. This film is inspired by the legends and myths that grew up around the real-life character João Francisco dos Santos (1900-1976), also known as Madame Satã. Born to ex-slaves in the arid wasteland of Northern Brazil and sold by his mother at the age of 7, Madame Satã was six feet tall and 180 pounds of proud muscle in a silk shirt and tight pants. Filmmaker Karim Aïnouz's extraordinary portrait of this paradoxical personality unfolds against the vibrant, sordid mean streets of Rio de Janeiro, a world run through with violence and raw desire, where desperate dreams spring from poverty and squalor.

Outstanding Drama Series
Six Feet Under
HBO
One of the most acclaimed shows on television, Alan Ball's Six Feet Under continues its darkly comic and kooky look at the Fishers, a dysfunctional family who own and operate an independent funeral home in Los Angeles. After a separation, David Fisher and his partner Keith Charles reunite and move in together. At first it is bliss but cohabitation presents this couple with more problems than blessings. David and Keith try everything possible to repair their decaying relationship: couples therapy, gay vacationing, gay sports, and even sexual adventures. However, their continued fighting drives David into the arms of a sympathetic friend from the Gay Men's Chorus. Meanwhile, precocious Claire falls in love with Russell, a confused fellow student who can't make up his mind between loving Claire and being drawn to Olivier, their bisexual Art teacher.

Outstanding Individual Episode
(in a series without a regular gay character)
"And Baby Makes Four"
Girlfriends
UPN
Girlfriends takes viewers inside the intertwined lives of four very different African American women living and working in Los Angeles. Their best male friend is William Dent, a colleague at the law firm where one of the women works. He's a buttoned-up conservative guy who suffers from the "nice guy" syndrome. In fact, William is such a nice guy that last season, he donated his sperm to his lesbian sister's partner so they could have a baby. During the birth of his "nephew/son" in this episode, William struggles to define what his role will be in the boy's life. Sandra Bernhard makes a guest appearance as the midwife.

Outstanding Television Movie
Angels in America
HBO
Mike Nichols directs a stellar cast led by Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson in Tony Kushner's adaptation of his Tony and Pulitzer award-winning play. Angels in America focuses on the stories of two troubled couples, one gay and one straight, and how their fates quickly become intertwined. This six-hour epic is, among other things, a searing indictment of how the Regan administration's long silence about AIDS helped to fuel the epidemic in the 1980s, and an accurate portrayal of the rancid hypocrisy among powerful closeted gay Republicans in Washington as AIDS raged out of control.

Outstanding Documentary
Brother Outsider (winner)
PBS
This biography of Bayard Rustin is particularly important for lesbian and gay Americans, highlighting the major contributions of a gay man to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. A master strategist and tireless activist, Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Despite his achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. Brother Outsider takes a multifaceted approach to the material, reflecting the complexity of Rustin's story. This feature-length portrait unfolds both chronologically and thematically, using interviews and traditional documentary techniques, as well as experimental approaches.

Outstanding Reality Program
America's Next Top Model
UPN
African American lesbian, Ebony Haith, was one of 10 women selected to participate in America's Next Top Model, which chronicles the transformation of everyday young women into hopefully the next generation of supermodels. From the beginning, Ebony was open about being a lesbian, and her girlfriend even came to visit during one episode of the series. Ebony didn't win the final prize but she made a strong showing and paved new ground for other aspiring lesbian models.

Outstanding Television Journalism
"The Death of Sakia Gunn"
Live from the Headlines
CNN
Sakia Gunn, a 15-year old African American lesbian was fatally stabbed May 11 while waiting with friends for a bus in Newark, N.J., after refusing a man's sexual advances by telling him she was gay. This outrageous tragedy shocked the nation, and as urban affairs correspondent Maria Hinojosa reports, Sakia's brutal murder has inspired many to organize and advocate for gay and lesbian teens that are in need of safe places where they can find support and comfort. Following Hinojosa's report, Anderson Cooper interviews Sakia's mother and cousin about their efforts to create a safe space for gay teens in Newark.

Outstanding Magazine Article
"Motherhood My Way"
by Jacqueline Woodson
Essence Magazine
After years of longing, an African American lesbian fulfills her wish to start a family of her own. Throughout the article, Woodman shares her desire to be a mom, the decision of how she would conceive, fertility issues relating to endometriosis, the "Are you pregnant yet?" inquiries from anxious friends, her relationship with her partner who was busy finishing med school, and eventually the birth of her daughter.

"To be Young, Gifted and Gay"
by Farah Stockman
Honey
As homosexuality becomes less taboo, more young African American lesbians are coming out, spurring a number of social opportunities including a conference, a sorority, and countless other groups, making it easier for African American women to be bold about their sexual orientation.

Outstanding Newspaper Article
"Gays Feel Left out of Morehouse Brotherhood"
by Craig Seymour
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Morehouse College, the preeminent college for African American men in the South, was shocked when one student attacked another with a baseball bat because he perceived a sexual advance. Based on interviews with over twenty current and former students and faculty, Seymour reveals that although Morehouse College touts values like diversity and tolerance, the administration is largely silent about homosexuality.

Outstanding Newspaper Columnist
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
Pitts' regular Miami Herald column, which also runs in newspapers around the country, often focuses attention on the need to overcome personal and cultural bigotry. His columns routinely include the importance of civil rights equality for LGBT people. This past year, he wrote in favor of the Lawrence decision and full equality for same-sex couples. He also questioned recent lobbying by evangelicals for money to fight AIDS in the Third World when they have ignored AIDS at home. And, in another column, he examined the merits of the last-minute sexual harassment charges leveled against Bishop Robinson.

Outstanding Music Artist
Meshell Ndegeocello
Comfort Woman
Meshell Ndegeocello has been crafting beautiful and poignant songs for over a decade. Ndegeocello makes no apologies for her sexuality and lets her lyrics speak for her, singing eloquently about interracial relationships, homophobia and religious intolerance. On her latest release, Comfort Woman, Ndegeocello finds herself tackling topics such as love and addiction. The New York Times has said that Meshell's songs "dissect passion touch by touch." A fusion of soul, funk and jazz, Ndegeocello's Comfort Woman challenges listeners' preconceived notions about the politics of gender and race - all to a deep groove.

Outstanding Los Angeles Theater
Blues for an Alabama Sky
by Pearl Cleage
Long Beach Playhousev Set in the 1930s, just as the Harlem Renaissance was winding down and the Depression was getting started, writer Pearl Cleage weaves a touching tale of four African American friends sharing their hopes and their lives in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Guy is an openly gay costume designer who is determined to create dresses for Josephine Baker in Paris. His best friend is Angel, a down-on-her luck cabaret singer. When Angel falls in love with a homophobic stranger from Alabama, all of their relationships are changed forever.

Body of Faith
by Luis Alfaro
The LA Gay & Lesbian Center's Renberg Theatre
A formerly homeless gay man rejects his fundamentalist Christian upbringing and finds a new spiritual home at Metropolitan Community Church. A bisexual woman — and recent convert to Judaism — struggles to reconcile the diverse facets of her life. A transgender woman finds her spiritual identity outside of organized religion. A gay Muslim man searches the Koran in a quest to understand where he fits in. All these real people and more, their true and fictionalized stories, are part of Cornerstone Theater Company's Body of Faith by MacArthur Fellow Luis Alfaro. This production explores the complex and dynamic relationship between faith and identity.