America’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) held their 20th Annual Media Awards in New York on Sunday. The organisation serves as a media watchdog in America, ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Among those honoured were TV show host Tyra Banks and singer kd lang.

Banks scored one of the highest honours of the night – the Excellence in Media Award, which is awarded to individuals who, through their work, have increased the visibility and understanding of the gay and lesbian community. America’s Next Top Model was recently applauded for including transgender contestant Isis as part of the competition. Later, on The Tyra Banks Show, Tyra has Isis on as a guest, and told her that she would be paying for her gender re-assignment surgery.

During her acceptance speech Tyra compared the racism she has experienced as a black woman to the discrimination faced by the gay, bi and transgender community.

“I didn’t understand why they empathised with me so much,” said Tyra. “As I got older I understood that hate and discrimination and inequality was the same. And that the issues that I was going through as a black woman were some of the issues that they had gone through as gays and lesbians and transgenders and bisexuals. And I want to thank all of those people whose shoulders I cried on, all of the people who embraced me… I have had a lot of success as a model, but I know I would not have had that success were it not for the gay community.”

Shelter, a gay surf film which was a hit last year at a number of Australian gay film festivals, tied with Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom in the film category.

A Jihad for Love, which recently screened on SBS was awarded Best Documentary. The film was years in the making, and claims to be the world’s first documentary film on the coexistence of Islam and homosexuality.

CBS Drama As the World Turns won Best Daily Drama for their depiction of gay relationships, and k.d. lang won in the Music Artist category for her album Watershed.

There are still two other awards nights to be held over the coming weeks – one in LA, where Kathy Griffin and Bishop Gene Robinson will be honoured, and another in San Francisco, where actor Chad Allen will be one of the special guests. Allen was outed by a US tabloid in 1996 when he was just 21 – pictures of him kissing another man in a hot tub at a party were published. Since then Allen has turned it into a positive, becoming an outspoken public advocate for the gay community. He recently starred in Save Me, which has been featuring in gay film festivals this year.

Watch Tyra’s acceptance speech here: