LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD is expected to receive the TV Academy’s 2023 Governors Award, which will be presented during the Primetime Emmys broadcast on January 15.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis will accept the award on behalf of the organization.
GLAAD is being recognized for its “work over nearly four decades to ensure fair, accurate and diverse representation of the LGBTQ community in the media and entertainment industries and to advocate for LGBTQ equality,” according to the TV Academy.
“Television shapes our society and influences the dialogue that increases understanding and acceptance, which makes GLAAD’s work so important to the LGBTQ community, to regulators and to the public,” said Frank Scherma, president of the TV Academy, in a statement. “Through its education and advocacy programs, it has had a culture-changing impact.”
Each year, the TV Academy Board of Directors selects “an individual, company or organization that has made a profound, transformative and long-lasting contribution to the art and/or science of television” for the Governors Award.
Previous recipients of the award include the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Debbie Allen, Tyler Perry, Star Trek, American IdolPBS, Hallmark Cards Inc., among others. and Walter Cronkite.
“This tremendous honor from the Television Academy is a testament to the historic and impactful work of GLAAD’s founders, board members, and employees over the past four decades, as well as the LGBTQ executives, creators, and talent telling authentic LGBTQ stories on television, Ellis said in a statement. “At a time when our world seems more divided and the media plays an outsized role in shaping culture, television has the unique power to tell human stories that increase empathy and acceptance. This honor is just the latest example of how the Television Academy plays a critical role in ensuring accurate and diverse storytelling that educates, entertains and enlightens.”
GLAAD was founded in 1985 by Vito Russo, author of The celluloid closetand other LGBTQ advocates, and the organization partners with leaders in TV, film, gaming, news, politics and more to ensure accurate and authentic representation of the LGBTQ community.
