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| Taylor Swift Photo: GLAAD |
GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization will honor global superstar Taylor Swift and award-winning director, producer, writer, and advocate Janet Mock at the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on Thursday, April 16, 2020.
The 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues. Nominees for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards will be announced on Wednesday, January 8, 2020. Events will be held in New York on Thursday, March 19, 2020 and Los Angeles on Thursday, April 16, 2020. Visit http://glaad.org/mediaawards for more information.
The 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards are presented by Gilead, Hyundai, and Ketel One Family-Made Vodka.
Taylor Swift will receive GLAAD’s Vanguard Award, which is presented to allies who have made a significant difference in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people. Previous Vanguard Award honorees include Beyoncé and JAY-Z, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Kerry Washington, Cher, Janet Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Antonio Banderas, Demi Lovato, Whoopi Goldberg, and Patricia Arquette.
Janet Mock will receive the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which is presented to a LGBTQ media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting LGBTQ acceptance. The award is named after a legendary casting director, who devoted his life to raising awareness in the entertainment industry about the discrimination faced by LGBTQ people as well as people living with HIV. Previous Stephen F. Kolzak honorees include Laverne Cox, Jim Parsons, Ellen DeGeneres, Troye Sivan, Ruby Rose, Chaz Bono, Wanda Sykes, Steve Warren, Melissa Etheridge, and Sir Ian McKellen.
Swift has used her platform to elevate the issues of the LGBTQ community and advocate for the acceptance of LGBTQ people everywhere. At the beginning of LGBTQ Pride month in June 2019, Taylor Swift wrote an eloquent letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander, a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, asking him to support the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ Americans from discrimination in employment, housing, and other public accommodations. Swift also created a Change.org petition encouraging her fans to support the Equality Act, writing: “Our country’s lack of protection for its own citizens ensures that LGBTQ people must live in fear that their lives could be turned upside down by an employer or landlord who is homophobic or transphobic. The fact that, legally, some people are completely at the mercy of the hatred and bigotry of others is disgusting and unacceptable. Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally.”
Mock is known for her work as a writer, director and producer on Ryan Murphy’s FX series Pose, for which she made history as the first trans woman of color to write and direct an episode of television with the landmark script, “Love Is the Message.” Mock and the cast of Pose received the award for Outstanding Drama Series at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York in 2019.
Additional honorees for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York will be announced soon.
To purchase tickets for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards, please visit https://www.glaad.org/mediaawards/31/tickets.
