Rufus Wainwright wins GLAAD award for outstanding music

Canadian-American singer Rufus Wainwright has wona GLAAD award for outstanding music artist for his 2007 album, Release the Stars.

The GLAAD Media Awards, for creators and media outlets that foster posititive images of gay and lesbian people, were given out Monday night by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Wainwright, the son of Canadian singer Kate McGarrigle and singer-actor Loudon Wainwright III, grew up in Montreal and began his career in that city's nightclub circuit.

He has toured North America, Europe, Asia and Australia in support of Release the Stars, his fifth album. He also gave a series of shows in 2007 in which he performed Judy Garland songs.

Other notablewinners of GLAAD awards were Stardust, a filmwhich featured Robert de Niro as a gay pirate and an episode of TV show Boston Legal, titled "Do Tell," about an openly gay man discharged from the army.

Television journalist Barbara Walters won an outstanding TV journalism award for the story "My Secret Self: A Story of Transgender Children," which aired on ABC's 20/20.

Another outstanding journalism award went to 60 Minutes episode "Don't Ask Don't Tell."

Hebrew- and Arabic-language film The Bubble, about a love affair between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man, won the award for limited release films.

For the Bible Tells Me So, a story of how different religious families handle a gay child, was named outstanding documentary.

Judy Shepard, the mother of slain gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, was given an honorary award for her activism since her son's brutal murder a decade ago.

Other GLAAD awards for news coverage of gay and lesbian issues:

• Newspaper article: "Aging and Gay, and Facing Prejudice in Twilight" by Jane Gross (The New York Times).
• Overall coverage:The New York Times.
• Magazine: "Dying to Come Out: The War on Gays in Iraq" by David France (GQ).
• Internet: "Gay Newsmen A Clearer Picture" by James Hillis (AfterElton.com).
• Multimedia:"Uncovering America: Fighting for Acceptance" (CNN.com).
• Comic Book: Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore.