Yesterday, CNN decided to suspend Roland Martin for his “offensive” tweets regarding David Beckham’s underwear ad for H&M. One such tweet read: “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl” In a written statement, CNN went on to say, “Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.” The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) advocated for Martin’s dismissal shortly after the tweets went viral.

Earlier today the news broke that CNN contributor Roland Martin will not be appearing on the network indefinitely for what GLAAD perceived to be a homophobic tweet. Despite his personal ideological bent, the reaction from the conservative media was a swift defense of the longtime CNN pundit. But the conservative reaction to Martin’s suspension is no surprise because the conservative movement has long abandoned the left/right divide for a new war front: that between individuals and the media elite.

On the heels (but not too closely on the heels) of Monday’s call by GLAAD that CNN analyst Roland Martin be fired for tweets he made during Sunday’s Super Bowl, the network has announced that Martin has been suspended. Martin initially explained the tweets, which GLAAD said encouraged violence against gay people, as tweaking soccer fans, but the network disagrees. In a statement released minutes ago, CNN says “Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive.

Today on his radio show, Glenn Beck jumped into the scandal surrounding a tweet sent out by CNN’s Roland Martin during the Super Bowl. GLAAD is calling for Martin’s firing for what they perceived as an anti-gay attack in the tweet. Beck explained that Martin should be fired, but not for what he wrote. Rather, because he’s a “dope” and an “idiot.”

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has called out columnist and CNN contributor Roland Martin for a Tweet he made during last night’s Super Bowl.

Univisión newsmagazine show Aqui y Ahora boasts a formidable ratings base and explores controversial political topics for an audience that sometimes uses the show as its only source of news. This weekend, the show tackled the topic of “gay reparative therapy,” interviewing subjects and providing expert opinion. Except the subjects they interviewed were “success” stories who were now heterosexual (or, in one case, a “failure”), and the “experts” were mostly “psychologists” who denied the existence of homosexuality.

Today, The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced its nominees for the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which seek to “serve as a benchmark for the media industry and complement GLAAD’s work to bring LGBT images and stories to Americans.” This year’s list of 151 nominees includes 35 Spanish-language stars, shows and films.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has released its 16th annual “Where We Are on TV” report, charting the number of LGBT characters in scripted, primetime programming across broadcast and cable networks. This year’s report found that that the overall number of scripted LGBT characters in primetime TV programming has dropped from last year (down from 3.9 to 2.9 percent for scripted series regulars), while the number of recurring LGBT characters on mainstream cable network has dropped from 35 to 29, with 25 additional recurring characters across other cable networks.

The award for most inclusive broadcast network goes to Fox, where 6.8 percent of series regulars are gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender. That’s a huge leap for a network which had a total of zero LGBT series regulars in 2007.

GLAAD is calling on the Huffington Post to apologize for an article in which writer Amanda Fairbanks chronicles “Sex For Tuition: Gay Male College Students Using ‘Sugar Daddies’ To Pay Off Loan Debt.”

In a blog post about the article, GLAAD lists the various gay stereotypes and misconceptions that appear in Fairbank’s report. For example, she quotes a student who tells her that students participating in prostitution do so in order to “afford the extravagant and often lavish gay lifestyle” and writes that “unlike in the straight world, many say they find working as an escort on the gay scene to be an accepted, even applauded practice.”

Today, ABC announced the line-up for the upcoming (and 13th) season. The 12 “celebrity” crew, motley as ever, includes George Clooney‘s ex-girl friend Elizabetta Canalis, Kardashian brother Rob, and Casey Anthony obsessive Nancy Grace, among others. And with the competition still several weeks away, the announcement page has already attracted hundreds and hundreds of commenters, the majority of whom seem concerned to see Chaz Bono‘s name on the list.

It appears that after weeks of controversy, largely fueled by the traditional and online LGBT media, Jarret Barrios of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has resigned after questions surfaced regarding GLAAD’s relationship with AT&T and the company’s regulatory agenda before the Federal Communications Commission and its merger with T-Mobile. This easily could have [...]

There was a time that the word “fag” probably wouldn’t cause much of a stir. But Vanity Fair contributor Brett Berk has found himself in the middle of a weekend firestorm after dropping the f-bomb in a column about the recent episode of Glee in his Gay Guide to Glee on VF’s website.

The Rainbow Sash Movement, a national Catholic GLBT movement, has announced that it disagrees with the petition organized by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation that aims to convince CNN to stop inviting guests and commenters from the “anti-gay industry.”

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Againt Defamation (GLAAD) has created a petition in an effort to convince CNN to stop inviting what the organization deems “anti-gay” guests onto the network. In fact, GLAAD aims to fight against CNN’s inclusion of the “anti-gay industry” as a whole when it covers issues and debates relevant to gay and civil rights issues.

It happened fast. The organization I run, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation or GLAAD, posted on Twitter a statement that criticized the Washington Post’s decision to give a noted anti-gay activist an editorial platform in which he calls gay and lesbian youth ‘abnormal’ and ‘self-destructive’:

GLAAD is out with their annual report on “Where We Are On TV” – a comprehensive look at the presence of LGBT characters on television.

Here are some of GLAAD’s findings:

With some obvious exceptions, asking whether something is “good for society” will more likely than not get you in hot water, especially when the object of discussion is an entire group of people and their representation in pop culture. CNN learned this the hard way this week when they received a request from GLAAD to remove an offensive online poll asking: “Is the surge in gay TV characters ‘bad for society’?”

After GLAAD targeted the Today show for not allowing same-sex couples to participate in their “Modern Love” wedding contest, NBC relented and agreed to include them.

But the four finalists were announced and introduced today – and there are no same-sex couples.

After a meeting with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, NBC announced that it would permit same-sex couples to participate in the “Modern Love’ wedding contest on Today and extended the deadline for the contest until Monday, July 12. The news was first reported by TVNewser.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s feud with the Today show over a wedding contest that excludes same-sex couples may be on the mend as Today’s executive producer Jim Bell will sit down today with GLAAD to hash out concerns overs the contest, according to a GLAAD blog post and confirmed by NBC, via Twitter

The Today show’s “Modern Love” casting call for couples to compete for a Today-sponsored wedding isn’t quite modern enough for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation since the morning show is refusing to consider same-sex couples.

As we enter into week three of why Newsweek’s Ramin Setoodeh is a bad gay for suggesting that Sean Hayes isn’t believable as a romantic lead, it appears the Hollywood Velvet Mafia isn’t quite done with him yet and now he has agreed to do penance on the set of Glee.

CNN’s Kyra Phillips has done an on-air apology for having an ex-gay activist on her show without a countering expert, but said she was hurt by the “hateful messages” she received from viewers who were upset about the show.

HLN host and The View panelist Joy Behar and actress Cynthia Nixon received the top honors at the Gay an Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Awards handed out March 13 in New York. Behar won the excellence in media honors and Nixon received the Vito Russo Award for advocacy by an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender media person.

It was an irresistible story. A gay-hookup site called ManCrunch submitted an ad to CBS for inclusion during the Super Bowl. The company leaks to the media that they expect to be turned down because the ad includes two men kissing and CBS instantly became the villain in the annual ritual of Super Bowl ad drama.