GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, announced that global media leader, producer, philanthropist, actress and author Oprah Winfrey will receive GLAAD’s Vanguard Award.
Oprah Winfrey is a global media leader, producer, philanthropist, actress and author who for decades has used her platform and popularity to shed light on important LGBTQ issues and uplift the LGBTQ community. Over the course of her esteemed career, she has created an unparalleled connection with people around the world, making her one of the most respected and admired figures today.
For 25 years, Winfrey was host and producer of the award-winning talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where the talk shows potlighted a multitude of LGBTQ issues including homophobia and gay marriage time and time again.
Winfrey was nominated at the first GLAAD Media Awards in 1990 for The Women of Brewster Place, a TV mini-series that she executive produced and starred in. The Oprah Winfrey Show received 15 nominations in GLAAD’s “Outstanding Talk Show Episode” category and won the award 9 times. Other GLAAD-nominated films and TV projects that she executive produced include When They See Us and Precious. OWN documentary Becoming Chaz also received the ‘Outstanding Documentary’ award in 2012. OWN’s Oprah’s Next Chapter received two GLAAD Media Awards and her interview with Janet Mock on Super Soul Sunday received the GLAAD Media Award for “OutstandingTalk Show Episode” in 2016. Most recently, in 2022, Winfrey won the GLAAD MediaAward in the same category for her interview with actor Elliot Page on AppleTV+’s The Oprah Conversation.
In the interview, Winfrey interviewed actor Elliot Page in his first television interview since coming out as transgender in a candid conversation where hespoke about life saving health care and warned of deadly consequences of legislative attacks on the rights of people who are transgender.
Currently, Oprah oversees Harpo Productions, serves as Chairman and CEO of OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, is the founder of O, TheOprah Magazine and digital site OprahDaily.com. In 1996, Oprah’s Book Club launched, serving as a catalyst for the creation of book clubs around the world and millions of books sold across genres.
Through Harpo Productions, Winfrey oversees scripted and unscripted programming. Recent projects include the GLAAD Media Award nominated musical feature “The Color Purple,” for Warner Bros. Discovery and Hulu drama series adaptation of Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel, “Black Cake,” which is also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award this year.
Winfrey is also a dedicated philanthropist. During a December 2002 visit with Nelson Mandela, she pledged to build a school in South Africa and has thus far contributed more than $200 million towards providing education for academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. Winfrey is a founding donor of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History andCulture. Winfrey’s Morehouse Scholars Program has supported over 600 men graduate from college. In 2020, Winfrey donated over $20 million in vitalCOVID-19 relief support to cities around the country, including her hometowns of Nashville, Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Kosciusko, MS.
In a graduation speech to Tennessee State University’s (TSU) Class of 2023, Winfrey decried the relentless GOP campaign to dismantle the rights of LGBTQ people. “You’ve witnessed the storming of the Capitol and the death of civility,” she began. “You’re acutely aware that voting rights are being gutted. Women’s rights are being dismantled, books are being banned, history is being rewritten. The Supreme Court is being corrupted… the LGBTQ community is under attack,” she said.
“At a time when it was potentially career-ending to support LGBTQ people, Oprah Winfrey did what’s right and championed our community’s stories,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “A pioneer for diverse and inclusive media, she shines a powerful light on HIV, coming out, LGBTQ people, our families and the challenges we face which educated and moved countless around the world. When Oprah speaks, the world listens and our community cherishes her as an unapologetic ally, especially to transgender people. Winfrey’s commanding career will forever align her on the right side of history.”
The 35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards will be held March 14th in Los Angeles, California.
