GLAAD on Saturday honored actress Debra
Messing and handed out awards to Trevor Noah and Rachel Maddow, among
others, at its annual Media Awards in New York City.
Noah, the host of Comedy Central's The
Daily Show with Trevor Noah won for Outstanding Talk Show Episode
for his interview with actress-activist Angelica Ross. Ross, a
transgender woman, is also the CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises,
which helps employ transgender individuals. Rachel Maddow won for
Outstanding TV Journalism Segment for a segment titled Gay
Community in US “Forged in Fire,” which aired after a mass
shooting at an Orlando gay bar and covered some of the most
horrifying attacks on the LGBT community in the United States,
starting with the 1973 firebombing of a New Orleans gay bar that left
dozens dead in 1973. (The massacre is the subject of director
Robert L. Camina's Upstairs
Inferno.)
Messing received the group's Excellence
in Media Award. The award is presented to “media professionals who
have made a significant difference in promoting equality and
acceptance.” Previous recipients include Robert De Niro, Russell
Simmons, Kelly Ripa, Patti LaBelle, Tyra Banks, Julianne Moore, Glenn
Close, Barbara Walters, Bob and Harvey Weinstein and Diane Sawyer.
Messing in 2003 won an Emmy for playing
Grace Adler on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. The sitcom,
which is returning for a new 12-episode season, was the first prime
time network comedy to feature a gay lead character.
Other winners on Saturday included The
Charlotte Observer, which won the Outstanding Newspaper Article
for Permission to Hate by Elizabeth Leland; The Nation,
which won the Outstanding Magazine Article for HIV Mystery: Solved
by Tim Murphy; and Tegan and Sara, who won the Outstanding Music
Artist for Love You to Death. Holy Bullies and Headless
Monsters was named outstanding blog.
Attendees included Whoopi Goldberg,
Rami Malek and Rosie O'Donnell.