LOS ANGELES, CA – December 16, 2008 – here!, America's premium gay and lesbian television network, is pleased to announce that it will be airing the 15th annual Out 100 Awards. The ceremony, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, honored the 100 most influential people in the LGBT community in 2008. here! filmed the ceremony on November 14th at Gotham Hall in New York City. It will be air on the network beginning Friday, January 2nd. In addition to the awards ceremony, the broadcast features behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with many of the night’s celebrity guests.
The special December/January double-issue of Out magazine honors musicians, writers, fashion designers, politicians and social figures who have made significant strides in the gay community in 2008. This year's honorees include Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show; Gus Van Sant, director of Milk; pop princess Katy Perry; and Browdway star Cheyenne Jackson.
Chelsea Handler, star of Oxygen's Girls Behaving Badly and E!'s Chelsea Lately, hosted the night's ceremony along with Out Editor-in-Chief Aaron Hicklin. The festivities included performances from LaBelle, Nikka Costa, and Sam Sparro. The guest list at the Out 100 Awards was made up of over 1500 guests from across the media and advertising industry, along with tastemakers from the national gay community and Out 100 Awards honorees.
In addition, the ceremony offered guests the opportunity to join the Light to Unite: Worlds AIDS Day campaign. Guests participated by lighting a virtual candle on the Bristol-Myers Squibb website and making a donation to the National AIDS Fund to help support the fight against HIV/AIDS in the U.S.
"As in previous years, the Out 100 Awards reflects an extraordinary range of talent and accomplishment in almost every walk of life, including boldface names, both new and old. These important figures soldier quietly under the radar to improve the quality of all our lives," said Hicklin. "While gay men and women continue to face hurdles in our quest for equality, this roll call of names shows how much we have to celebrate. From fresh names like MSNBC correspondent Rachel Maddow and Broadway star Cheyenne Jackson, to living legends such as playwright Edward Albee and actor Ian McKellen, this year's Out 100 Awards list is a paean to our contribution to the cultural and social fabric of America."
About here!
Founded in 2002, here! airs on all major U.S. cable systems as a 24-hour subscription service. here! appears in 96 of the top 100 U.S. markets, including every top ten market. here! also was the first gay network originating in the U.S. to launch in Canada. here! offers a wide variety of groundbreaking and acclaimed original movies and series plus the world's largest collection of gay and lesbian films appealing to the broad-based, diverse LGBT audience. here! Video, the broadband portal of here! Networks found at www.heretv.com/videoplayer, provides a broad sampling of here! programming. For more information on how to subscribe to here!, please call our toll free number at 1-888-HERE-NOW.
