Towleroad points out today that writer Michelangelo Signorile has given the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation some guff on his blog, “The Gist.” The organization has become known for its annual media awards ceremonies, the most recent of which took place Saturday night in Los Angeles. I’ve got nothing against awards shows, I guess, but lately GLAAD’s have started to seem like less like celebrations of still-rare queer representation, and more like opportunities for (apparently?) heterosexual stars to access the gay demographic. Saturday’s honorees included a “vanguard” award to Jennifer Aniston, as well as “outstanding individual episode” of a TV show to “Grey’s Anatomy.” Maybe they were trying to be funny with that last one?
Signorile takes the organization to task for its apparent reluctance to speak out during recent “f-word” slipups, and calls for the awards show to be “halted, or at the very least, radically pared down.” Maybe Signorile is just trying to catch up to Michael Musto, whose recent controversial Out cover story has reignited the “outing” torch. But he has a good point: in a world where celebrities still live in the “glass closet” and homophobic outbursts have little consequence, it seems like there’s a lot more for GLAAD to do besides becoming a “high-priced masseuse” to Hollywood.
