Empire, Carol and Caitlyn Jenner up for GLAAD Media Awards

Caitlyn Jenner’s reality series is among the nominees announced for GLAAD’s upcoming media awards in Los Angeles.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognise and honour media for “their fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of the LGBT community and the issues that affect their lives.”

On Wednesday, the list of nominees for the 27th annual event was revealed.

These include Academy Award nominated films Carol and The Danish Girl; comedy-drama and Golden Globe nominee Grandma;  lesbian drama Freeheld as well as the hit TV show Empire; and science fiction series Sense8.

Other shows that have been honoured for their LGBT characters or themes include Arrow; Grace and Frankie; Grey’s Anatomy; Orange Is the New Black; Orphan Black; The Fosters; and Transparent.

Transgender issues were further recognised in nominations for the Diane Sawyer interview with Caitlyn Jenner; Jenner’s I Am Cait show; and I Am Jazz, a reality series about a transgender teen (which was shamefully banned by DSTV in South Africa).

“For nearly three decades, the GLAAD Media Awards have propelled inclusion in media and driven LGBT acceptance forward,” said GLAAD CEO & President Sarah Kate Ellis.

“This year’s nominees have raised the bar for creating thoughtful and diverse LGBT images and storylines, deepening audiences’ understanding of LGBT people and accelerating acceptance across the world.”

The GLAAD Media Awards will be held across two ceremonies, one in Los Angeles on April 2 and another on May 14 in New York.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the awards will be televised in the US and will be screened in a one hour special on the Logo channel. Below is a list of the nominees in the major categories.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

Arrow (The CW)
Black Sails (Starz)
Empire (FOX)
The Fosters (ABC Family)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
How to Get Away with Murder (ABC)
Nashville (ABC)
Orphan Black (BBC America)
Sense8 (Netflix)
Shameless (Showtime)

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
Faking It (MTV)
Grace and Frankie (Netflix)
Looking (HBO)
Master of None (Netflix)
Modern Family (ABC)
Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)
Please Like Me (Pivot)
Transparent (Amazon Instant Video)
Vicious (PBS)

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL EPISODE (in a series without a regular LGBT character)

“Gender” The Carmichael Show (NBC)
“Please Don’t Ask, Please Don’t Tell” Black-ish (ABC)
“The Prince of Nucleotides” Royal Pains (USA Network)
“Rock-a-Bye-Baby” NCIS New Orleans (CBS)
“We Build, We Fight” NCIS (CBS)

OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

Banana (Logo)
Bessie (HBO)
Cucumber (Logo)
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY
Kumu Hina (PBS)
Limited Partnership (PBS)
Mala Mala (Strand Releasing)
Tab Hunter Confidential (The Film Collaborative)
Tig (Netflix)

OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM

I Am Cait (E!)
I Am Jazz (TLC)
New Girls on the Block (Discovery Life)
The Prancing Elites Project (Oxygen)
Transcendent (Fuse)

OUTSTANDING DAILY DRAMA

The Bold and The Beautiful (CBS)

OUTSTANDING FILM – WIDE RELEASE

Carol (The Weinstein Company)
The Danish Girl (Focus Features)
Dope (Open Road Films)
Freeheld (Lionsgate)
Grandma (Sony Pictures Classics)

OUTSTANDING FILM – LIMITED RELEASE

52 Tuesdays (Kino Lorber)
Appropriate Behavior (Gravitas Ventures)
Boy Meets Girl (Wolfe Video)
Drunktown’s Finest (Nehst Studios)
Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)