The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association today announced that it will honor the late documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs as the newest inductee to the organization’s LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame.
NLGJA’s 2006 Excellence in Journalism Awards & Hall of Fame Ceremony will be held on Wednesday evening, November 8th, 2006 at Chicago’s Palmer House Hilton.
Born in Ft. Worth, TX in 1957, Riggs gained national attention in 1991 for the broadcast of his film Tongues Untied (1989) on the PBS program P.O.V. Both the award-winning film and PBS’s decision to broadcast it were targeted as part of a larger campaign to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. The Christian Coalition sent an edited clip of the film to every member of Congress. Another clip was used as part of a negative TV ad during the 1992 presidential primary.
But, as Riggs would write in the August 12, 1991 edition of Current magazine, “Tongues Untied was motivated by a singular imperative: to shatter America's brutalizing silence around matters of sexual and racial difference. Yet despite a concerted smear and censorship campaign, perhaps even because of it, this work achieved its aim. The 55-minute video documents a nationwide community of voices — some quietly poetic, some undeniably raw and angry — which together challenge society's most deeply entrenched myths about what it means to be black, gay, a man, and above all, human.”
Riggs was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University with a Master of Arts from the University of California Berkeley, where he taught documentary film in the School of Journalism. He died on April 5, 1994 from AIDS-related causes, leaving behind a significant and influential body of written and film work. NLGJA is pleased to honor these accomplishments and achievements.
NLGJA's LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame was established in 2005 as part of NLGJA’s 15th anniversary celebration. At that time, seven journalists were honored for their commitment, courage and dedication. These were individuals who made exemplary contributions through their careers to NLGJA’s mission of promoting fair and accurate coverage of issues affecting the LGBT community. They worked to ensure that those working in journalism and communications were treated fairly and equally.
NLGJA is an organization of journalists, media professionals, educators and students working from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues. NLGJA opposes all forms of workplace bias and provides professional development to its members.
