Usually winning an award is a good thing. As the World Turns' recent win at the GLAAD Awards -- its second in as many years -- has spurred controversy over whether or not the show deserved to be honored for its storyline involving Luke and Noah. Two members of the media expressed their displeasure with the decision, while another applauded the win.
What started off as an award honoring one soap opera's progressive storytelling has progressed into something more of a verbal melee. Last month, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) awarded As the World Turns the honor of Outstanding Daily Drama at its annual awards ceremony. The award praised the show for featuring a storyline involving two young, gay men. It marked the second year in a row that the CBS soap had picked up the honor.
Almost immediately upon learning that As the World Turns was being named the winner, several prominent journalists decried the honor. Awards guru and Los Angeles Times blogger Tom O'Neil and TVGuide Canada's Nelson Branco were two of the most vocal critics.
"When the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) bestowed its awards last Saturday night, it repeated its outrage of last year," O'Neill wrote. "As far as I see it: The organization devoted to fighting discrimination against gays in the media again gave an honor to a TV show that appeared to discriminate."
Added Branco, "Predictably, the seemingly self-professed anti-discrimination organization is recognizing ATWT despite the fact that the CBS sudser ordered a highly controversial kissing ban on their lone gay couple, Luke and Noah, in the beginning of 2008. Also, ATWT banned any kind of sexual intimacy or lovemaking between Nuke since their almost two-year reign on the soap. This, on a series in which every other heterosexual couple could act as the official spokespeople for sexually transmitted diseases."
CBS has never acknowledged that there was an official kiss embargo for the couple known as "Nuke." A spokesperson for Procter & Gamble's television production branch, TeleNext Media, argued that "there's no kissing ban," but conceded that "creative decision[s]" have been made so as not to offend any part of the show's "diverse audience."
Meanwhile, AfterElton.com, a web site devoted to news and commentary on gay and bisexual men in entertainment and the media, defended GLAAD's decision to honor As the World Turns. In short, the web site argues that no show is perfect -- and notes that it took courage to tackle the storyline when faced with possible boycotts.
Trending
"Yes, the show has a double standard in how it handles gay sex, but calling ATWT homophobic and condemning GLAAD for recognizing the Luke and Noah storyline as groundbreaking is just ludicrous," wrote AfterElton.com editor Michael Jensen. "Not understanding that Procter & Gamble, the sponsor for ATWT, as well as everyone else involved with the show, faced criticism and potential financial losses for including a gay storyline in the first place, is simply being willfully ignorant.
Branco suggested that GLAAD should have considered ABC's All My Children or SOAPnet's once-per-week primetime General Hospital spinoff, General Hospital: Night Shift, for the award. All My Children had been nominated -- it was the only other nominee in the category. Night Shift did not receive a nomination because it did not meet the category requirements of being a daily program.
Reply
