The duo and Jeremy Pope were recognized at the L.A. event.
A League of Their Own showrunner Will Graham called out Hollywood: “The days when you can sit on the sidelines while people debate our right to exist are over.”
After Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Lynched kicked off the show, followed by host Margaret Cho celebrating the news of Donald Trump’s indictment, A League of Their Own showrunner Will Graham accepted the show’s award for outstanding new TV series.
Nominated against shows like Queer as Folk, Willow and The Sandman, Graham said: “It would be strange to accept this award without commenting on the fact that this show is one of the lucky ones, and that so many of the shows that were nominated in this category have been canceled or quietly canceled, and that mirrors what’s happening with queer stories across our society and in our classrooms.”
GLAAD handed out 15 awards to TV shows, movies, musicians, books and journalists who reflected fair, accurate and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues.
The event also handed out 3 special honors to Bad Bunny, Christina Aguilera, and Jeremy Pope.
Ricky Martin presented the Vanguard Award to Bad Bunny, praising that “the most streamed artist in history is loudly standing with trans women and the entire community” and letting “the LGBTQ people dance, sing love and live lives authentically. That could not be more important right now.”
Bad Bunny, speaking in Spanish, thanked the “whole LGBTQ community for embracing me, for loving me the way they do, and for inspiring me too.”
Gay Directors, Gay Films? By Emanuel Levy (Columbia University Press, August 2015).
Aguilera, who received the Advocate for Change Award from Club Q shooting survivor Michael Anderson, said she grew up surrounded by the LGBTQ community and “side-by-side we’ve learned and taught each other everything about life, from business to relationships to music, family, partying — I don’t know who does it better — and of course, how to give a good blowjob. We know how to get dirty!” as the crowd burst into laughs.
“When you’ve been a victim of violence, abuse or trauma, it is incredibly hard and scary to find your voice and fight back. Having grown up in a home with domestic violence, it was seeing my mom in a powerless position that first ignited the fire in me to speak up for all of the people whose voices don’t get heard,” she added. “We all need to raise our voices if we want to live in a world that’s free of discrimination, hate and violence. I feel so grateful tonight because for me, it’s not about winning awards or being honored — it’s nice though, thank you — but my greater purpose is to use the platform I have to change lives for the better.”
He continued, “I want you to know that we are beautiful, we are chosen for greatness, all of us chosen to use our time on this earth to plant seeds of prosperity and ideas of a better tomorrow for the next generation of warriors.” The 34th annual GLAAD Media Awards also featured special performances from Fletcher and Orville Peck, the latter of whom performed a tribute for the late Leslie Jordan.
The show will be available to stream on Hulu starting April 12.
