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Lady Gaga. The cast of "Glee." "Dancing with the Stars."
These are some of the nominees for the 2012 Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards. The nominations, announced Thursday, also included picks for Spanish language categories.
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Over the course of several weeks, the nomination process was carried out by more than 85 volunteers serving on seven nominating juries.
A total of 116 nominees were announced for 25 English-language categories, along with 35 nominees in 10 Spanish-language categories.
Categories in the 2012 GLAAD Media Awards include Outstanding Film: Wide Release ("Albert Nobbs," "Beginners," "J. Edgar"), Outstanding Reality Program ("Dancing with the Stars," "Girls Who like Boys Who Like Boys," "The Glee Project," "The Real L Word," "The Voice") and Outstanding Music Artist (Lady Gaga, Girl in a Coma, Beverly McClellan, Hunx and His Punx, MEN).
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Returning categories that were not featured in the 2011 Media Awards are Daily Drama ("All My Children," "Days of Our Lives") and Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series ("Cinema Verite").
Each year, jurors evaluate media (which includes TV shows, films, talk show appearances, publications and columnists) based on a four points: fair, accurate and inclusive representations; boldness and originality; impact; overall quality.
On Thursday, IBTimes spoke with Rich Ferraro, Director of Communications of GLAAD. Here's what he had to say about this year's Media Awards and nominations process.
IBTimes: Are there any jurors or volunteers worth noting for this year's nomination process?
Rich Ferraro: The juries spend collectively thousands of hours reviewing materials and meeting to discuss, so I think it's hard for a celebrity to commit to a process like that. There are some journalists who are part of the process, as well as industry figures. The juries are predominately avid consumers of the respective categories -- people who are impacted by these media images.
IBT: How would you summarize the biggest change to the nomination selection in recent years? Obviously, more shows are featuring LGBT storylines, characters - as a result, is the nomination process more strict?
RF: There's been an improvement in the quantity, but the quality can still grow. Honoring groundbreaking LGBT stories each year sets the bar for the media industry to tell more in-depth stories and ones that reflect the diversity of the LGBT community. It's still rare that gay characters are people of color or to see a transgender character, but some of this year's nominees do an outstanding job of representing both of those communities.
IBT: What was the biggest surprise for this year's nominations, from a jury point of view?
RF: In the Reality Series category, "Dancing with the Stars" and "The Voice" were both nominated. These are hugely popular mainstream competition shows that the American public votes on -- and both featured LGBT contestants who were voted through several weeks. The popularity of the contestants speaks to the widespread support for LGBT people today.
