2012’s GLAAD Awards Recognizes Faith Leaders

Everything from the Academy Award nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague to an episode of the reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is recognized in the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Award’s celebration of outstanding representations of the LGBT community in film, TV, and the news. This year’s awards also include two important representations of Christianity’s movement for LGBT equality.

In the category Outstanding Talk Show Episode, an interview with Bishop Gene Robinson on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is nominated. The U.S. Episcopal Church made history in 2003 by electing Bishop Robinson as the first openly gay priest in a major Christian denomination in the U.S. In his interview with Jon Stewart, Bishop Robinson speaks about his book, God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage, and his sense that “there’s a real hunger, even among the more conservative religious denominations, to find a way forward on this.”

A Boston Globe article about a historically black United Methodist Reconciling congregation is nominated in GLAAD’s Outstanding Newspaper Article category. “Black Church Reaches Out to Gay, Transgender Teens” by Meghan E. Irons tells the story of a church with ties back to the Underground Railroad that has now taken a stand on church inclusion by adopting a Reconciling Statement and starting a youth program that reaches out to gay and straight teenagers in their community.

Click through to see the entire list of this year’s GLAAD nominees.