DANCING WITH THE STARS, RICKY MARTIN, OPRAH HONOURED

Dancing with the Stars, Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and The Oprah Winfrey Show were among 360 recipients of the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards.

The glamorous event was hosted by Glee actors Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith in New York on Saturday.

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

The lesbian coming-of-age film Pariah was named Outstanding Film, Limited Release while the Outstanding Reality Program went to Dancing with the Stars.

The Oprah Winfrey Show was honoured in the Outstanding Talk Show category for the Coming Out on the Oprah Show: 25 Years of Unforgettable Guests episode.

Outstanding Music Artist was Lady Gaga for her album Born This Way and the Outstanding Comic Book award went to Batwoman.

“I’m so proud to win ‘Outstanding Artist’ for Born This Way album at GLAAD Media Awards. Thank you so much to your organisation,” tweeted Gaga in response.

Anderson Cooper was recognised for his television exposé of attempts to “cure” young boys of homosexuality or feminine traits in America, titled The ‘Sissy Boy’ Experiments.

At the ceremony, Broadway legend Bernadette Peters and actor John Stamos presented the Vito Russo Award to television and film producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Footloose, Chicago, Hairspray).

The Vito Russo Award is presented to openly LGBT media professionals who have made a significant difference in promoting equality for the LGBT community.

“I want to thank GLAAD for selecting us to be honoured, and for their extraordinary work every single day,” Zadan said in his acceptance speech.

Meron accepted the award by saying, “I just love being gay. [It’s] part of who I am, so it impacts the work that we do, and I love the work that we do. So it’s great.” Pointing to the youth in the balcony, Meron continued, “It’s great for you guys to understand that it’s really great to be gay.”

Ricky Martin was awarded Outstanding Music Artist for his album, Música + Alma + Sexo in the Spanish language category.

Also at the event, film producer and outspoken anti-bullying advocate Harvey Weinstein presented a Special Recognition award to openly gay high school student Katy Butler.

Butler launched a Change.org campaign last month to advocate that the ‘R’ rating of Weinstein’s upcoming documentary Bully be changed to ‘PG-13.’ Her Change.org petition has nearly 500,000 signatures.

Additional GLAAD Media Awards will be presented in Los Angeles on April 21 and in San Francisco on June 2.