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‘Glee’ cast to reunite at GLAAD awards in honor of Naya Rivera’s Santana Lopez

Naya Rivera performs in a short black dress surrounded by "Glee" cast
Naya Rivera, center, performs on “Glee,” surrounded by her fellow cast members.
(Fox)
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Get ready for a landslide of support for the late Naya Rivera and her “Glee” character, Santana Lopez, who will be honored next month at the virtual GLAAD Media Awards.

Cast members from the hit Fox musical will reunite at the virtual event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Santana’s coming out as lesbian on the show and honor the character’s influence on LGBTQ teens and Latinx LGBTQ representation on TV.

Rivera died last July of drowning while boating with her young son at Lake Piru, northwest of Santa Clarita. She was 33. At the time, her fellow cast members poured out their memories of her on social media, after some of them had come together at Lake Piru right before Rivera’s body was recovered.

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“Glee” star Naya Rivera, who died during a boat outing with her son last week, was known for showstopping performances on the series. Here are the 10 best.

Introduced by pop musician Demi Lovato, the GLAAD tribute will feature “Glee” veterans Jacob Artist (Jake Puckerman), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson), Vanessa Lengies (Sugar Motta), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams), Heather Morris (Brittany S. Pierce), Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Alex Newell (Wade “Unique” Adams), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Harry Shum Jr. (Mike Chang), Becca Tobin (Kitty Wilde) and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang).

George Rivera, father of late ‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera, says Ryan Murphy hasn’t followed through on a pledge to set up a college fund. Murphy disagrees.

“Glee” ran for 121 episodes, from 2009 to 2015, and won four Golden Globes, including two for best comedy or musical TV series. It was nominated six times for GLAAD’s outstanding comedy series and won twice, in 2010 and 2011.

The awards show, hosted by actress Niecy Nash, will premiere on GLAAD’s YouTube channel April 8 at 5 p.m. Pacific. Streaming fans can catch it via Hulu a couple of hours later, at 7 p.m. Pacific, or on demand until the end of June.

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