30th Annual GLADD Awards: New York

As one of the most colorful, visionary, fashionable and eclectic evenings on the planet, the GLADD Media Awards, “rewrites the Script for LGBTQ acceptance.” Often forenamed and anointed “The Gay Oscars”, GLADD Media Awards, “honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues.”

A stunning tribute to the LGBTQ Community and Nightlife, this year’s Awards, said to be the largest ever, featured: GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, Host, Shangela, Advocate For Change Award Recipient, Madonna, Vito Russo Award Recipient, Andy Cohen, and other guests including Sarah Jessica Parker, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Billy Porter, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Dina Delicious and for me the supreme hero of the evening, Rosie O’Donnell.

While all the multi chromatic quests whizzed by on the Red Carpet, as did Sarah Jessica Parker, Andy Cohen and superstar Rosie O’Donnell stopped for a brief interview:

Hello Rosie, how are you?
I’m good, I like your hair.

Your fabulous!
Thank you very much.

Rosie, what’s new for you?
I have a new mini-series for HBO with Mark Ruffalo. It’s called, ” I Know This Much Is True.” It’s from a book by Wally Lamb. It’s about twin brothers, one who has schizophrenia, while the other one is the caregiver. I play the social worker in the mental hospital.

When will this air?
It’s going to air next year. It’s been wonderful. The director is amazing. He never stops. He does 30/40 takes a day. He does 20 pages in a day.

You must be glad to get into acting again?
My son said to me the other day, “Mom I saw you on TV in a baseball game and you were a teenager.” I told him “honey, that was my first movie. I wasn’t a teenager, I was 29 years old.” I was very, very lucky. I love acting and I’m very happy to do it again. Get Out was able to speak with the beautiful Dominique Jackson, out trans actress and TV personality starring in FX’s “Pose” which is nominated for “Outstanding Drama Series”, Gus Kenworthy, Out Olympic freestyle skier, and one of the first openly gay men to compete for the American Olympic team also stopped to say hello.

Gus, how excited are you to be here tonight?
I love the GLADD Awards. I’m feeling good inside. It’s such a good show and it’s so important just having representation in the media across all outlets. It’s so important to struggling LGBT kids and also just for people in other states that maybe have their own perception of what LGBT people are. So I think it’s so important that we just have representation and being here tonight and having Madonna and Andy Cohen being recognized is really amazing. I feel lucky to be here. Zeke Thomas, out DJ, music producer, awareness advocate who was most recently seen co-hosting MTV’s Catfish, as well as being basketball star Isaiah Thomas’s son, also spoke with Get Out.

So Zeke, do you like basket ball?
A little bit. It’s kind of like a pre-rec.

Your a DJ? I bet you’re the coolest DJ in life.
I DJ everywhere. I try to be.

What kind of music do you spin?
I do House music and definitely Hip-Hop. Housewife Sonja Morgan, a super huge gay supporter, also stopped to chat as did Dina Delicious, Benito Skinner, out comedian, nominee Jonathan Van Ness, from Netflix’s “Queer Eye”, Alexandra Billings from “Transparent”, Yuval David, from “Madam Secretary”, August Getty, fashion designer, May Hong, actress, and a host of others.

The evening was vibrant, dynamic, and empowering. Although I personally didn’t get to hang with Madonna, Get Out chief Mike Todd reported that she was extraordinary. Wearing an Adam Ant inspired jacket, Madonna gave an emotional, heart-warming expectant speech….

“When I made the movie “Truth or Dare” I had no idea that I was going to inspire so many gay men to A) to give blowjobs to Avion bottles, or B) just have the courage to cone out. And be free and take a stand and say “this is who I am, like it or not.” When I look back and watch that film I am horrified by my brattiness, but I am also proud that it gave so many people hope. The freedom fighting expanded and continued and so did getting my ass kicked. Fighting for all marginalized people was it a duty and an honor I could not turn my back on nor will I ever.”