by Rex Wockner
[story filed April 26, 2003]
HOLLYWOOD --
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation conferred
special honors on actor Eric
McCormack, singer
Christina Aguilera and filmmaker
Todd Haynes
at its glitzy 14th annual Media Awards
April 26.
In addition,
major awards were won by Six Feet Under,
Will & Grace
and the film The Hours for their positive
portrayals of
gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
Held at the tony
Kodak Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard,
the ceremony
honored Aguilera for the bold gay and
transgender
images in her Beautiful video. Haynes was
rewarded for
his film Far From Heaven. McCormack was
recognized for
his five years of playing Will on NBC's
top-rated sitcom
Will & Grace.
Aguilera's video
includes two gay men making out on a
public bench
oblivious to the stares of passersby, as
well as former
Robert Mapplethorpe model Robert
Sherman slowly
transforming himself into a woman,
finally smiling
at his feminine image in the mirror.
GLAAD Executive
Director Joan Garry said the video
"conveys a powerful
message about self-respect and
empowerment."
"At a time when
many in the music industry avoid
lesbian and
gay themes altogether, or even worse, use
defamatory images
to appear edgy, Christina's decision
to feature gay
and transgender people in her video is
a strong statement
of inclusion, affirmation and
acceptance,"
Garry said.
Aguilera performed
an a cappella version of Beautiful
that brought
the house down.
"It is so important
that in my music I do convey
positive images,
and this song is definitely a
universal message
that everybody can, I think, relate
to," she said.
"Anyone that's been discriminated
against or unaccepted,
unappreciated or disrespected
because of who
you are -- your color, your sexual
preference,
whatever that may be. I wanted really ...
to support the
gay community. Still in 2003, we even
have to give
awards because it is so unaccepted still
today in society.
So I wanted to show my love and
support to all
of you."
McCormack thanked
GLAAD for its support of Will &
Grace over the
years.
"Television by
its very nature aims to please all the
people all the
time," he said. "As a straight actor
playing a gay
role on a network sitcom, I faced the
very real possibility
that I would please none of the
people none
of the time -- by being too gay for
straight America
and not gay enough for gay America.
And I'd be trapped
in some gay/straight limbo like
Simon Cowell
or Ryan Seacrest. Fortunately I needn't
have worried.
The straight audience came around pretty
quickly but
it was this community that was with us
from the very
beginning. In fact it was GLAAD that
during the shooting
of the pilot sent a telegram
saying, 'We're
behind you all the way' and, being
GLAAD, I know
they meant that literally."
Filmmaker Haynes
said Far From Heaven changed his
career.
"I've always
considered myself someone working very
much in the
margins, very much outside of the
mainstream,
free to really experiment with narrative,
with depictions
of homosexuality and struggle and a
lot of other
themes as well," he said. "And not always
committed to
positive representations necessarily, but
trying to get
really down deep into the things that
kind of unify
all of us. Something happened with Far
From Heaven,
I think, where the film entered a
different arena
for me -- this has been kind of a
dizzying year,
an amazing year of my career.
"I feel very
proud to be a part of the representation
of gay struggle
in film," Haynes said. "It'll be
something I'll
continue to do and we'll just keep
fighting."
McCormack's award
was presented by Will & Grace's Sean
Hayes, who plays
Jack. Hayes took the audience on a
roller coaster
ride, coming this-close to coming out,
then not doing
it. Many reporters and gay fans have
been irritated
by Hayes' refusal to say if he's gay,
straight or
something in between.
"I feel good
here," Hayes said. "I feel comfortable. I
look around
and I see kind, accepting faces -- granted
most of those
faces don't move above the eyebrows, but
they seem to
have kind and accepting potential. I've
had three martinis
with the new low-carb vodka, I'm
feeling the
love, and I think I need to do something,
I think it's
time to share something about myself,
something that
I've needed to share with you for a
while now but
wasn't quite prepared to do so in the
past. I needed
time, I needed to feel safe, I needed
it to come from
me and no one else. I have to confess,
I'm a little
nervous about it, but I can't imagine a
better place
to say this. So, ladies and gentleman,
members of the
media, colleagues and friends: I'm
being selfish
again! I'm being selfish again! Tonight
is about Eric
McCormack and _his_ heterosexuality. I
apologize."
In an exclusive
interview, Queer As Folk's Peter
Paige, who plays
Emmett Honeycutt, talked about the
program's impact
on gay America.
"I know Queer
As Folk has made a difference to the gay
cause," Paige
said. "I see it literally every single
day. I see in
the faces of gay people who come up to
me on the street.
I see it in the faces of straight
people who stop
me on the street. Which now -- early
in the show
it was all gay people who stopped me. Then
very quickly
it became straight women. And now it's
straight men,
all the time -- often subtly, often
under their
breath, but I don't get on an airplane
without a straight
guy saying to me, 'You know, my
wife and I love
the show.' And when asked why, they
all say the
same thing, 'Oh, we just like the
stories.' If
you had told me 20 years ago that I would
be a part of
that, that I would be a part of the show
that made straight
people not even able to see the
division anymore,
I'd have told you you were crazy."