Golden Globes kick off new era with more out queer winners

Last night’s 81st annual Golden Globes not only marked the kickoff of the 2024 awards season, it was also the first edition of the much-maligned awards show since the dissolution of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. As The Hollywood Reporter noted, after the infamously shady organization disbanded last year, its assets and properties, including the Golden Globes, were acquired by Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge Industries. This year’s nominees and winners were selected by a new reportedly racially and ethnically diverse voting body made up of 300 journalists from 76 countries.

So what did that mean for LGBTQ+ representation amongst the 2024 winners? After bisexual White Lotus creator Mike White was the lone out winner last year, this year’s Globes handed out awards to three out queer nominees.

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Diversity was on display at the 80th annual Golden Globes

Host Jerrod Charmichael roasted the HFPA, while Regina Hall and Jennifer Coolidge stole the show.

Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone, who uses she/they pronouns, took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture in the Drama category. Their win was doubly significant, as it marked the first time in the show’s history that an indigenous person has won a Golden Globe.

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“This is for every little res kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told by ourselves, in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust with each other,” Gladstone said in their acceptance speech.

Meanwhile, singer Billie Eilish, who recently opened up about her attraction to women, won the award for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture alongside her brother and co-writer Finneas for their song “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie.

“It was exactly a year ago that we were shown the movie,” Eilish said, “and I was very, very miserable and depressed at the time, and writing that song kind of saved me a little bit.”

While the final season of Succession dominated the TV awards, FX’s The Bear also had a strong showing. The show won the Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Jeremy Allen White won the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy. White’s co-star Ayo Edebiri, who identifies as queer, also took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Of course, awards shows are always going to do some weird and baffling things. This year’s Golden Globes featured two new categories. Barbie became the first film to win the award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement—a category designed to recognize big blockbuster movies. And while the nominees for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television included some of the greatest comic voices of our time—Trevor Noah, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes—the newly minted Globes voters chose to bestow the inaugural award on anti-trans comedian Ricky Gervais for his most recent Netflix special Armageddon.