KIM CATTRALL RECEIVES GLADD AWARD

Sex and the City actress Kim Cattrall was among those honoured at the final GLAAD Media Awards for 2011 in San Francisco on Saturday.

Advocates, allies and celebrities joined host Naya Rivera from Glee at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis to celebrate the people and stories that positively represent the LGBT community in the media.

The Golden Globe-winning Cattrall, who played Samantha Jones in Sex and the City, was honoured with the Golden Gate Award in recognition of her vocal support for the LGBT community.

“Sex and the City broke barriers for LGBT actors, characters and storylines, and Cattrall brought brilliant life and nuance to Samantha’s lesbian relationship with her girlfriend Maria – one of the few relationships Samantha took seriously,” said GLAAD.

The organisers also noted that Cattrall has spoken out publicly in support of marriage equality, and was featured on the cover of The Advocate in May 2008.

“My name is Kim Cattrall, and you may be asking yourself why I have been chosen to be the honouree at the [GLAAD Media Awards]?”, the star said tongue-in-cheek in her acceptance speech. “Well, as many of you know, I played a gay man on a very popular television show for six wonderful years!”

She added: “And more importantly, gays and lesbians have been my friends and supporters since the beginning of my career, and it has been an honour to stand up and give them my fullest support, both on-screen and off.”

The Outstanding Spanish Language Music Artist Award was presented to Mexican pop star Christian Chávez by Mario Lopez, while Dustin Lance Black accepted the Outstanding Documentary Award for 8: The Mormon Proposition.

Other winners included the Oscar-nominated family drama The Kids Are All Right, which took the award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release, accepted by writer/director Lisa Cholodenko.

Previous events were held in Los Angeles and New York during 2011, where GLAAD honoured Ricky Martin, Kristin Chenoweth, Russell Simmons, Robert Greenblatt, 30 Rock, Glee, Modern Family and True Blood among others.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognise and honour media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.