Channing Tatum to present GLAAD award to Roland Emmerich
Channing Tatum will present a GLAAD award to openly gay director Roland Emmerich at the 26th Annual GLAAD Awards next month.
The writer, producer and director will receive the Stephen F. Kolzak Award at the 26th Annual GLAAD Awards.
Tatum will present Emmerich with the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which is is presented to an openly LGBT media professional who has “made a significant difference in promoting equality.”
The award is named after Stephen F. Kolzak, a casting director who campaigned to raise awareness about the discrimination faced by LGBT and HIV-positive people in the entertainment industry.
Emmerich, who is famous for directing blockbusters such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, has supported a variety of LGBT organisations and projects such as Freedom to Marry and The Los Angeles LGBT Center.
In 2013 he donated $250,000 (£164,000) to the Human Rights Campaign in support of equal marriage.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said: “As one of Hollywood’s most sought-after film directors, Roland Emmerich has entertained audiences across the globe. His generosity has touched the lives of countless LGBT people, bringing shelter to homeless youth and preserving culture-changing stories that help close the gap to full acceptance.”
Emmerich has just finished filming a film about the Stonewall riots, starring Jeremy Irvine and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.“
“Now, with the upcoming release of ‘Stonewall,’ millions of moviegoers all across the world will see the harms of anti-LGBT discrimination and learn about the historic riots that forever changed equality in America,” Said Ellis.
The 2014 Stephen F Kolzak award was given to Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox. It was presented to the actress by Ellen Page, who called her an “LGBT icon”. It has also been presented to Wanda Sykes, Rufus Wainwright, Ellen DeGeneres, and Sir Ian McKellen.
