CYNTHIA NIXON AND GAY-FRIENDLY MEDIA HONOURED

Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon and gay-positive television shows and films have been honoured at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York.

The awards recognise “excellence in fair, accurate and inclusive media representations of the LGBT community”.

Saturday’s gala function – hosted by actor Alan Cumming – saw Brothers and Sisters being named Outstanding Drama Series and Little Ashes being awarded best Film in Limited Release while The Oprah Winfrey Show was noted for its episode Ellen DeGeneres and Her Wife, Portia de Rossi.

Joy Behar, one of the hosts of The View, received the Excellence in Media award for her positive stance towards gays and lesbians in the popular talk show.

Sigourney Weaver joined producers Daniel Sladek and Damian Ganczewski to accept the award for Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series for the film Prayers for Bobby, in which Weaver played a mother coming to terms with her son’s sexuality.

Cynthia Nixon, who is openly lesbian and has used her celebrity status to advocate for same-sex marriage, received the Vito Russo Award, which is presented to an openly LGBT media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the LGBT community.

“We are bringing marriage back to its fundamentals and revitalising it from its roots up,” said the actress while receiving her award.

The Tony Award-winning cast of Hair received a Special Recognition award while The New York Times and The Advocate were honoured for “best overall coverage” by a newspaper and a magazine respectively.

The award show was the first of three events, with the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles taking place on April 17th and the San Francisco function taking place on June 5th.