GLAAD and Gay Media in US

TOPICS: Gay market. Gay marketing. Lesbian and gay PR. GLAAD. Gay and lesbian alliance against defamation. New York gay media. Logo TV. here! netwrks gay TV. US lesbian and gay market. US gay media. Gay marketing in US. GLAAD annual awards creates a stink with lesbian and gay media.

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One story that happened this past week when I was in New York tells an interesting tale.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, has done some wonderful work over the years in protecting lesbians and gay men and the US gay and lesbian community from attacks from various media. Their latest campaign, for example, is against conservative and anti-gay commentator, Ann Coulter.

This week in New York GLAAD hosted their annual GLAAD Awards recognising the flipside, namely awarding affirmative treatment of lesbians and gay men in the media. This is something GLAAD has done for years.

What has changed though is that there is new media - online, social, and niche TV such as here! TV and Logo TV from Viacom through MTV.

These new channels in particular think that their own good work deserves a seat at the table for consideration during the annual GLAAD awards but, in what I think is actually a PR mistake by GLAAD, GLAAD said no to Logo and here! TV content being eligible for any awards category.

At Out Now we think GLAAD needs to urgently reconsider this as the advent of new media changes the landscape and GLAAD Awards must reflect that if they are to continue to be relevant as a measure of gay and lesbian media representations, including on channels such as here! TV and Logo.

Amazingly, Logo, who hold broadcast rights for the event have even been critical of GLAAD on this one.

The New York Times article about GLAAD, Logo and here! TV is in extract form for you below:

Gay Media Outlets Seek Place at the Table at Awards for the Representation of Gays
Published: March 26, 2007

On the eve of one of the highest honors awarded by the gay community, the organization that recognizes positive portrayals of gays and lesbians in the mainstream media is facing growing pressure to honor its own.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which is holding its 18th annual media awards tonight in New York, considers work by gay media outlets to be ineligible. That policy has come under criticism recently by some companies that contend that Glaad’s criteria for selecting nominees are outdated at a time when the distinction between mainstream and alternative media has become increasingly blurred.

Here Networks, a premium cable channel with programming aimed at gay and lesbians, sent a letter to the organization’s president last week, saying that Glaad’s policy is “archaic, short-sighted and ghettoizing.” The cable network added: “In the absence of strategic change from Glaad, the organization’s largest event is on the verge of becoming irrelevant.”

Some gay media executives said they saw a contradiction in that Glaad helped pave the way for gay media outlets to exist, but now does not consider those outlets eligible for its signature awards event.

“I was flabbergasted,” said Stephen F. Macias, the senior vice president, corporate and marketing communications for Here Networks. “The organization that is supposed to be clearing the field for us is relegating us to the corners.”

Neil G. Giuliano, the president of Glaad, defended the organization’s stance, noting that its goal has traditionally been to influence media outside the gay and lesbian community.

“Our mission has been to seek to ensure fair, accurate and inclusive coverage of our community in the media whose job it is not to work directly for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community,” he said. “I would expect L.G.B.T. media to always be fair, accurate and inclusive in telling the L.G.B.T. story.”

Other gay media outlets are also clamoring for recognition at Glaad’s media awards. Logo, the gay-themed cable network owned by MTV and Viacom, raised the issue with Glaad last year. The network’s general manager, Lisa Sherman, issued a statement on Saturday that again raised objections to Glaad’s policy. “We encourage Glaad to include under its mission every artist and creator who has made the portrayals of gay people accurate, authentic and more inclusive.” (Logo said it will still broadcast the awards show despite its concerns.)

Anne Stockwell, the executive editor of The Advocate, said her magazine’s staff members have been bewildered that Glaad has chosen not to honor their work at the awards.

“Everybody feels it would be great to see Glaad take a forward-looking position and be assertive in coming to some kind of a sensible way to recognize all of us,” Ms. Stockwell said. “I do think it can feel frustrating to do all the reporting that we do, and break all the stories that we break, and not feel that there is a path to recognition.”

The Advocate’s parent company, Planet Out, is a sponsor of the awards program.
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