This past Saturday, Betty White and the cast of Hot in Cleveland presented Jesse Tyler Ferguson with the Outstanding Comedy Series award for his hit show Modern Family at the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles. Watch the presentation below.
Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick asked White why the gay community identifies with shows like theirs. “Well, I think the gay community has always liked old ladies. I mean, they always have.” Leeves and Malick protest being called “old ladies,” and White offered a story of her time on Golden Girls. “We were on Saturday night and our show would come on and all the gay bars would shut the music off, stop the dancing…” she stopped here for crowd laughter, “You think I’m kidding, it’s true. They’d watch the show...You’ve been very dear friends, and we appreciate you very much.”
Jesse Tyler Ferguson took a quick Twitter picture with the cast, “That’s right… got a picture with the gals.” In his remarks, Tyler Ferguson stressed the importance of recognizing all the nominees in every category. “It really is just adding to the visibility of gay characters on TV.” He continued, “I think a few years ago it would have been mindboggling to fill this category, but now we have five nominees and I feel like we’ve snubbed a few too. It’s like ‘God, we actually have that many TV shows with gay characters,’ it’s pretty amazing right now.”
Jesse also signed Jennifer Tyrrell’s Change.org petition asking the Boy Scouts of America to allow LGBT scouts and scout leaders.
Betty White, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves joined Jason Mraz, Max Adler, Tabatha Coffey, Benicio Del Toro, Ellen DeGeneres, Mark Deklin, Trevor Donovan, Reza Farahan, Sara Gilbert, Kat Graham, Grant Gustin, Madison Hildebrand, Josh Hutcherson, Perez Hilton, Joshua Jackson, Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Gilles Marini, Kyle Richards, Molly Shannon, Miriam Shor, Lisa Vanderpump, Kim Wayans, Marissa Jaret Winokur and others at the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, which helps fund GLAAD’s work to share culture-changing stories that build support for equality.
For a complete list of winners, click here. For pictures of the event, click here.
On June 3 Dianna Agron will voice her support for equality by hosting the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco. For ticket information, click here.
The 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards were presented nationally by Ketel One and Wells Fargo, and presented locally in Los Angeles by Delta Air Lines. Southwest Airlines is the local presenting partner of San Francisco.
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