14 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE April 30, 1999

eveningsout

The stars come out for the GLAAD Media Awards

by Rex Wockner

Los Angeles-The Century Plaza Hotel and Towers was overflowing with celebrities April 17 for the 10th Annual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards.

Seventeen hundred guests and 110 media organizations attended.

At the ceremony, GLAAD honored Whoopi Goldberg with the organization's Vanguard Award, which was presented to the Oscar-winning actress by fellow thespian Sharon Stone. This award is given to a member of the entertainment or media community who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for lesbians and gay men.

"The parts I've taken, I've taken because I believed in them," Goldberg said of her impressive résumé, which includes portraying lesbians in Boys on the Side and Deep End of the Ocean. “I've never seen any difference between me and anybody else— white people, Chinese people, Spanish people, gay people, straight people, sheep."

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Will & Grace's Eric McCormack (Will) and Sean Hayes (Jac smooch for reporters at the GLAAD Media Awards. Reporters had just asked McCormack when his character might experience a date and a kiss.

She cautioned those in the audience to refrain from outing other gays and lesbians, comparing it to McCarthyism.

"Do not shove people out of the closet," she said. "Don't do it. It's wrong, child. You have to let people come when they're ready. Because when they are ready, they will be your ally. If we're going to be a cohesive unit, not just as gay folks but as human beings, then we have to respect each other, and not everybody's ready."

Taking note of some of the out lesbian actresses in the audience, along with gayfriendly actresses who would relish the opportunity to sink their teeth into a lesbian role, Goldberg mused, "Will I be able to play more lesbian women, or is my time up? Because, you know, I see all of you [lesbians] all around-I figure I ain't gonna get no goddamn work now.'

Rocker Melissa Etheridge and her partner, producer and director Julie Cypher were presented GLAAD's Stephen F. Kolzak Award by Tom Hanks, for their outstanding contribution to combating homophobia.

"Here we are standing in this lovely room in front of some of the most beautiful people on earth, and we don't quite know what to say because this is a strange kind of an award,” Etheridge said. “It's strange to get an award for just living your life every day, you know? But we're here and we-Julie and I—just want to say thank you."

Etheridge went on to tell her story of growing up and coming out as a lesbian "in the great state of Kansas in the fine town of Leavenworth.”

"I was 17 and I kissed a girl for the first time. And the earth moved and the heavens opened up and I looked around and I felt like I was the most alone person on this earth.

Because as far as I knew there were no other girls who had ever kissed any other girl ever. And the thought that I would be isolated and rejected for the rest of my life was a very, very real one.

"Then one day, I was looking through my father's books he used to teach high-school psychology--and there was this little pamphlet on homosexuality and it had this little pencil drawing of two girls holding hands and my heart leapt. I was not alone. Someone had drawn a picture of two girls holding hands, so somewhere someone had seen two girls holding hands.

"I didn't care what the paniphlet said. I didn't care if it said if we were sick or not or whatever; all I cared about was that image, the feeling of hope. And if the power of one small drawing was so great to me, imagine what the work all of us are doing means to young gays everywhere today."

Oscar winner Hanks, who is married to actress Rita Wilson, had much to say about his respect for his gay and lesbian friends and colleagues during the course of the evening. "In this era of political and religious at-

tacks on the gay and lesbian community, their lives are

an excellent, a perfect

ex-

BOB GORDON/WOCKNER (3)

Will & Grace's Debra Messing (Grace) and Megan Mullally

ample of true, (Karen) smooch for reporters at the recent Gay and Lesbian genuine family Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards in Los Angeles. values," Hanks said. "Love is love, it's a constant, it's the speed of light, be

cannot changed, cannot slowed

down." "I'm here because I like the work that GLAAD does," Hanks added. "It's important work that, hopefully, within another ten years, won't be necessary. Wouldn't it be great if by the year 2008, if out of sincere disinterest, no one is showing up at the GLAAD event? Wouldn't that be a nice thing? I'm more than happy to do something because ultimately, to me, it's common sense and it's very American to embrace what is embraced here." Discussing

his role as a gay man with AIDS in the movie Philadelphia, Hanks said, "Ultimately, the best

thing [about the ad

film was] we had

a movie about somebody who was gay and the movie made money. That was the biggest thing that it did. And that means we have TV shows in which, son of a gun, there's characters that are gay on TV

and they do fine and people watch them and it works out... Half a decade has gone by and-you know what?-it's not that big a deal any more, is it? That's good stuff.”

Talk show host Roseanne was given a special video tribute by GLAAD for her outstanding contributions to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community for more than a decade.

"My one hope in this world is that gays will be running the entire world, and I mean overty, not behind their little respective clos

ets but out in the open," Roseanne said. "There would be no war, I believe that, just a greater emphasis on military apparel. And lesbians will perpetually be organizing the proverbial and... working to develop autofertility. The military code would change for the better, I believe, as well as the country and the world. Please ask, and do tell.”

The comedienne and actress went on to say that "It's because of lesbians that I have a career, honestly. I find them to be the most unique as well as [most] frightening individuals alive. Only after myself, of course. Maybe because I hate women more than I hate men, I guess. And to lesbians, of course, that makes me a dyke."

In her unique style, Roseanne delivered a message to would-be gay bashers everywhere:

"God is only about love. Love. And more love. The devil is about hate, okay? The devil is where, like, hatred comes from, you fucking devil-worshipping, child-molesting, gay-

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REX WOCKNER

bashing Nazi skinheads. Rest assured, if you hear this in your head: 'They must die'--if that's in your head at all, that is a message from Satan, okay, not from God.”

Other GLAAD awards went to: Gods and Monsters for Outstanding Film in Wide Release;

Chicago Hope for Outstanding Television, Drama Series;

Will & Grace for Outstanding Television, Comedy Series;

Tracey Takes On, "Tracey Takes On Reli-

gion," Outstanding Television, Individual Episode.

Eric McCormack, who plays Will on Will & Grace, spoke about their award-winning show.

"You have to be careful because you're going to piss somebody off one way or the other," he said. "The main way [for us to succeed] is just to keep four characters that you love watching week after week. If they love them, you can get away with murder sometimes, which is great."

"My worst nightmare was gay men e-mailing me saying, 'What?' And it's been the opposite very much. They've been writing, saying: 'Thanks for showing another kind of gay man, a gay man that doesn't get shown a lot. That's me. Or that's my brother.'

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"[The response from the gay community has been] nothing but positive," added Sean Hayes, who plays Jack on the show. "Everybody loves [the show]. They get Will, they get Jack, they get all the spectrum. It's all good."

McCormack gave credit to the show he said paved the way for Will & Grace.

"[The success of Will & Grace] feels like you're the guy that gets to run over the finish line at the end of the year. It's a relay and we're at the end, so we get to hit the ribbon, but the rest of the race was run by somebody else [Ellen DeGeneres] and we're very grateful for it.'

DeGeneres, who attended the event with her partner, actress Anne Heche, said she is "thrilled to see [Will & Grace] on TV.” "I have a different perspective now [on Ellen's cancellation]," she said. “I don't look at it as shit that happened. I mean, I should have been a little more realistic about it, you know-known what was going to happen. It's not that I feel vindicated. I'm thrilled that [Will & Grace] is on the air. I'm thrilled every single time I see any progress at all. And it seems like we take one step forward and then Matthew Shepard gets killed and still Wyoming won't even pass a hate-crime law, even after this guy was tortured. The more that we're represented everywhere in television and film, and shown as people that exist and live lives like everybody else, it's a wonderful thing.”

The final GLAAD Media Award ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 8. On Sunday, March 28, GLAAD Media Awards were also handed out in New York City.