The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation or GLAAD media awards is basically a very camp, yet stylish version of The Emmys. And all the audience members attending are openly gay. Every year they hand out faaaaabulous awards to television shows that they feel portray a positive gay image on TV. In layman’s terms, shows that make gays, lesbians and everything in between out to be nothing but saints. It’s one of those chip on the shoulder things, I guess.

Anyway, this year two shows clearly broke the “rules” by portraying gay people doing stuff that some gay people sometimes do – like dressing up and performing as woman or talking about penises. But here is the catch. The industry snobbery (think like Ricky Gervais here, people) towards these shows makes them exactly the kind of shows society needs to see for us to get over our homophobic bullshit quicker. Evita Bezuidenhout and Nataniël as examples of gay culture will only get us so far, I’m afraid.

Ru Paul’s Drag Race, a drag queen/transvestite version of America’s Next Top Model is so awesome that I can only describe it by using one of the show’s punch-lines: “Gentlemen, start your engines – and may the best woman win!”

These bitches are FIERCE!

The A-List: New York has been called a “triumph of vacuous gay culture”

mmmkay?

Both these shows can be seen on Logo TV’s website and can be viewed from anywhere in the world – and you don’t need to be out of the closet to watch them.