On January 17, 2024, GLAAD announced the nominees for the 35th GLAAD Media Awards, and many of this year’s nominees center diverse and compelling stories about transgender and nonbinary people.
In the Outstanding Film – Streaming or TV category, Runs in the Family is a South African comedy about River, a transgender man, and his South Asian father Varun (pictured below), on a road trip through South Africa to rescue River’s birth mother from a rehab clinic in Eswatini. Hijinks ensue, including Varun joining River in a drag competition when River’s transfeminine nonbinary drag partner sprains their ankle. Runs in the Family is written by Gabe Gabriel, a trans man, and directed by Gabriel’s own father, Ian Gabriel.
In the Outstanding Film – Limited Release category Joyland, by out Pakistani director Saim Sadiq, the youngest son in a traditional Pakistani family takes a job as a backup dancer in a local Bollywood-style stage show, and has his views of masculinity and gender roles changed by the strong-willed trans woman who leads the dance troupe. At the Cannes Film Festival, Joyland received the Queer Palm Award and the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. In L’Immensità a Spanish expat grapples with the cracks in her loveless marriage while her eldest child wrestles with his assigned birth sex, choosing to live life as the boy he knows himself to be. L’Immensità stars Penelope Cruz as the mother and is written and directed by Emanuele Crialese, a transgender man, inspired by his own experiences in childhood. In Monica, a delicate portrait of a fractured family, a down and out trans woman, played by Trace Lysette (pictured below), returns home to take care of her dying mother, portrayed by Patricia Clarkson.
In the Outstanding Documentary category, Beyond the Aggressives: 25 Years Later is a sequel to the 2005 documentary The Aggressives, catching up with its transmasculine subjects Chin, Octavio, Trevon (pictured below), and Kisha. El Dorado: Everything the Nazis Hate documents the flourishing queer night-life of Weimar-era Germany, including the lives of two transgender women who transitioned with the help of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sex Research, and the community’s precipitous collapse with the rise of the Third Reich. Kokomo City, directed by trans filmmaker D. Smith, is a raw depiction of the lives of four Black trans sex workers. In Orlando, My Political Biography, trans philosopher and filmmaker Paul D. Preciado tells his and others’ stories of transition through unique reenactments and visual interpretations of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography. In Rainbow Rishta, six heartwarming stories of love across the queer spectrum, trans woman Daniella Mendonca moves mountains to make her seemingly impossible dreams come true. In The Stroll, trans filmmakers Zackary Drucker and Kristen Lovell examine the history of New York’s Meatpacking District, including the violence, policing, and gentrification which fueled the modern trans rights movement, told from the point of view of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. In a documentary from Brazil that aired on PBS’ POV, “UYRA – The Rising Forest” spotlights Urya (pictured below), a transgender, indigenous artist who uses drag, performance art, and ancestral messages to teach indigenous youth about structural racism and transphobia in Brazil, and to draw attention to ecological movements to protect the rainforests of the Amazon.
In Outstanding Comedy Series, the final season of Sex Education featured multiple transgender characters including Abbi, the “queen bee” of Cavendish College played by transgender actress Anthony Lexa, Abbi’s boyfriend Roman, played by trans actor Felix Mufti, and the returning nonbinary actor Dua Saleh, whose character Cal navigates the complexities of accessing medical transition in the UK. In Our Flag Means Death, nonbinary actor Vico Ortiz plays Jim, a gender nonconforming pirate. In Somebody Somewhere, transmasculine actor Murray Hill (pictured below) plays Fred Rococo, the host of a small-town queer cabaret. In With Love, trans actress Isis King stars in the role of Sol Perez, a trans nonbinary transfeminine oncologist.
In Outstanding Drama Series, five of the ten nominees include transgender characters. In the much anticipated return of Doctor Who, Yasmin Finney (pictured below) plays Rose Noble, the trans daughter of fan favorite character Donna Noble. In this season of Quantum Leap, trans nonbinary actor Mason Alexander Park returns as series regular Ian Wright, and the show aired an episode entitled “Let Them Play” which centered a trans teen girl and her quest to play on the girls’ basketball team at her school. Other returning series with trans characters include 9-1-1: Lone Star starring Brian Michael Smith as Paul Strickland, The Chi with Jasmine Davis as Imani, and Good Trouble with Hailie Sahar in a recurring role as Jazmin Martinez.
In the Outstanding Reality Program category TRANSWorld Atlanta followed four transgender men of color, I Am Jazz continues to give us a look at the life of Jazz Jennings and her family, and Queer Eye continues to feature trans nonbinary host Jonathan Van Ness.
In the Outstanding Reality Competition Program category, trans woman Sasha Colby became the first trans woman crowned the winner on the flagship series of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which comes on the heels of Willow Pill, a transfeminine performer, taking the crown in the previous season. In Love Trip: Paris, a group of women including a trans woman look for love and purpose in Paris. Next In Fashion featured James Ford, a transgender man who’s a fashion designer.
Last year, GLAAD split the Outstanding Kids & Family Programming or Film category into Animated and Live Action categories. The Animated category includes The Dragon Prince, which features the trans character Terry, voiced by Benjamin Callins and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which features trans character Brooklyn, voiced by Indya Moore, and trans nonbinary character Tai, voiced by Ian Alexander.
In the Outstanding Kids & Family Programming or Film – Live Action category, Netflix hit Heartstopper continues to include transgender character Elle Argent, played by transgender actress Yasmin Finney, and her romance with Tao Xu. Season two added more trans characters: disabled character Felix, played by trans disabled actor Ash Self, and Naomi played by trans actor Bel Priestley.
Five of the 10 games nominated for Outstanding Video Game feature trans and/or nonbinary characters: Baldur’s Gate 3, Goodbye Volcano High, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, Thirsty Suitors, and Too Hot To Handle 2. You can read more about those nominees here.
In the Outstanding Comic Book category, trans writer Jadzia Axelrod introduces her trans original character Galaxy into DC Comics’ Hawkgirl, which also includes trans character Alysia Yeoh, first seen in Batgirl. Trans writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle explores horror in BOOM! Studios’ The Neighbors, in which a Black trans man and his family move to a creepy rural town. In Marvel’s New Mutants Lethal Legion, trans writer Charlie Jane Anders brings her original trans characters Escapade and Morgan Red into the world of mutants. And Dark Horse Comics’ The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos includes Jordi, a Black trans guy who also happens to be a vampire.
The Outstanding Graphic Novel/Anthology category includes Heartstopper Volume 5, which continues to follow Elle Agent’s deepening romance with Tao Xu and what her starting college may mean for their relationship. And Us, a graphic novel from Spain newly translated into English, is both a transition story and a love story between a trans woman and her cis woman partner.
In Outstanding Music Artist, Kim Petras and Sam Smith received nominations. And in the Outstanding Blog category, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts and Erin in the Morning both received nominations. While Translash received a nomination in the Outstanding Podcast category.
Many talk show and journalism nominees feature trans people and/or highlighted issues affecting the trans community. Those nominees may be found here.
Receiving Special Recognition is the short-form documentary Dads about a group of dads bonding with their trans kids. Dads may be watched on Netflix.
Many nominees in the Spanish-language categories also include transgender and/or nonbinary people. Check back soon for a story about the LGBTQ representation in the Spanish-language categories.
Several of the nominees this year also include nonbinary characters who are not explicitly defined as transgender, adding to the growing conversation about gender diversity. Those nominees include: in the Children’s Program category, Firebuds features the recurring nonbinary character, Corey, while Monster High, features Frankie, a nonbinary character voiced by Iris Menas, and Ridley Jones features the nonbinary lead character of Fred, also voiced by Iris Menas. The Comic Book nominee Killer Queens 2, includes a nonbinary prince. And the Broadway Production, How to Dance in Ohio features a character who is both trans and autistic. In the Breakthrough Music Artist category, G FLIP, Iniko, and UMI all received nominations.
The 35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards nominees were published, released, or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2023. The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies, which fund GLAAD’s work to accelerate LGBTQ acceptance, will take place in Los Angeles on March 14, 2024 and in New York City on May 11, 2024. You can keep up with the latest developments by following GLAAD on Twitter and Instagram.