22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards - Hollywood

From GLAAD.org: Last night, GLAAD honored the media’s most outstanding images of the LGBT community at the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, hosted by Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones.

Sean Hayes presented the Vanguard Award to Broadway & TV actress Kristin Chenoweth in recognition of her work to promote LGBT equality.

Music legend Dolly Parton presented the Stephen F. Kolzak Award to Chairman of NBC Entertainment, Robert Greenblatt, in recognition of his work to bring LGBT characters to living rooms across the nation. Greenblatt gave life to such LGBT-inclusive TV shows as ‘The L Word,’ ‘Queer as Folk,’ ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘United States of Tara.’

‘Glee’ and ‘Modern Family’ tied to take home the Outstanding Comedy Series Award. Golden Globe-winning actor Chris Colfer and Mike O’Malley accepted on behalf of ‘Glee,’ while ‘Modern Family’ stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Julie Bown and Ariel Winter accepted on behalf of the ABC smash comedy.

Lifetime’s Project Runway took home the award for Outstanding Reality Series, and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell was joined by Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns to accept the award in the Outstanding TV Journalism Segment category for O’Donnell’s segment ‘Fort Worth Speech,’ which highlight Burns’ passionate plea to end anti-LGBT bullying.

An especially poignant moment came when actress Kirsten Dunst presented the Special Recognition Award to 17-year-old Nikki Peet, who attracted national media attention after she successfully petitioned her Corpus Christi high school to form a Gay-Straight Alliance, despite the administration’s opposition.

The GLAAD Media Awards series will continue in San Francisco on May 14, the final ceremony in 2011.

Pop sensation Ricky Martin and hip hop mogul Russell Simmons were among the winners at the GLAAD Media Awards in New York, held last month at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

Ricky Martin at GLAAD Media Awards in NYC

Film and Broadway producer Craig Zadan, presented the Vito Russo Award to Grammy Award-winner, Ricky Martin, whose decision to speak about his life as a gay man has had a tremendous impact worldwide, especially for Latino youth and their parents.

The Vito Russo Award is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equality for the LGBT community.

Perez Hilton Punching Incident with Black Eyed Peas

Famous celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was reportedly had a heated argument with Fergie and Will.i.am of Black Eyed Famous which eventually turned into a worst-punching incident with the group's tour manager Liborio "Polo" Molina outside a bar in Toronto, Canada.

The incident happened on early Monday of June 22 at Cobra Toronto Night Club during the after-party of the MuchMusic Video Awards 2009.

After the much publicized incident, Will.i.am immediately issued an official statement condemning violence and insinuating the right for respect. Read below:

I will not continue to comment specifically on the incident that happened in Toronto last weekend… But I would hate for my silence to be misconstrued… I do not condone harassment or violence of any kind…

No one deserves physical abuse…
And no one deserves verbal abuse…
No one deserves that…

Everyone needs to be respected…
And no ones name should be slandered in the name of hate and disrespect…
And fyi…”not every black man is a thug”…

As far as character allegations made against myself,
The members of the Black Eyed Peas,
And members of our management…
I believe that the truth will speak for itself once the details of the events are fully presented.

Hateful slurs…
Racial or gay should not be used as verbal weapons to provoke violence…

Let us all learn from the events that happened in Toronto…
That situation has already taken valuable time, energy,
And attention away from more important,
And in some cases, devastating issues happening in our world.
Thank you…

Will.i.am

And Perez Hilton has this video below to clear his name on the incident and to shed light on what really happened during that night:

And others have spoken too:

Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) : "These are vulgar anti-gay slurs that feed a climate of hatred and intolerance toward our community. For someone in our own community to use it to attack another person by saying that it is, quote, ‘The worst possible thing that thug would ever want to hear,’ is incredibly dangerous. It legitimizes use of a slur that is often linked to violence against our community. And it sends a message that it is OK to attempt to dehumanize people by exploiting anti-gay attitudes. We have reached out to Hilton and asked him to apologize for promoting this anti-gay slur and we would ask media outlets to avoid repetition of the slur in their coverage of this story."

Pop culture chronicler Rich Juzwiak: "I just kind of want to throw up my hands (or in my hands) and call out this character, this persona, this online half-person for what it is: bad for the Internet, bad for gay people, bad for the world. I can’t help but feel like everything would be better off without him… I racked my brain and I’ve still come up with absolutely nothing positive or pro-social that he has brought to the world."

27-year-old American Idol champ Kelly Clarkson: "I gotta be honest with you, he’s gonna get a lot of flowers. I’m not talking about Perez, the manager. (laughs) I do not think violence is the answer but what did you expect? You can’t talk that much crap about people without being able to take something. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already! (laughs) I hear that he’s mean to celebrities’ kids. You’re hurtful to children, no one’s going to pity you. I don’t understand! I don’t think anyone should be punched but I see why someone would want to do it."

Fergie’s husband, Josh Duhamel: "When you get rich saying hateful things sometimes you ask for it. It’s an unfortunate incident and I hope it goes away."

The View host Whoopi Goldberg: "When you get clocked by the pen, it’s never fun, and some people, you don’t know how they’re going to respond to you, and you might just want to take that into consideration."

Photo credit: drinktheglitter