Jason Howard Green

Jason Howard Green

Saturday, March 7, 2009

And The Award Goes To . . .

I was so excited about watching the NAACP Image Awards this year because for the first time ever we had several openly gay nominees in line to win awards. Our nominees included Wanda Sykes (supporting actress on The New Adventures of Old Christine), Patrik-Ian Polk (screenplay for Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom), E. Lynn Harris (outstanding literature) and the movie Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom was nomitated for outstanding independent motion picture. There were also a few straight actors playing gay characters that were up for nominations. Those included Paul James of Greek and both Sonja John and Michael Kenneth Williams of The Wire.

First I have to tell you - none of the catergories I tuned in to see were actually televised. The show was still good but damn - can I get one gay nomination on TV. So the night following the show I had no idea if any of the people I was pulling for actually won or not. I had to go to the NAACP website the following day to see if anyone won. Sadly enough not a single gay candidate or person playing a gay character walked away with an award. This was extremely disappointing to me. With so many potential winners in the pool I was certain that someone would walk away with an award.

I have to share this - I had the opportunity to speak with E. Lynn Harris a week prior to the awards show. I congratulated him on his nomination and wished him good luck in winning the award. He told me he was beginning to feel like the Susan Luchi of the NAACP. He's been nominated numerous times but has never actually won. He was really excited because for the first time he was nominated and Nikki Giovanni wasn't in the same category. I was excited for him because I felt this could have been his year. Sorry E - maybe next year.

I feel like I need to offer my condolenscences to all of the nominees that walked away empty handed. This year was the perfect storm for the LGBT community and the NAACP. I'm still in awe (and I'm posting this almost a month later) that not a single person walked away with an award. I don't think we'll see this many nominees in a single year repeated anytime soon - and I'm not an optimist or pessimest, I'm just a realist. I really hope that the industry proves me wrong but we'll see.

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