With "Brokeback Mountain" being the surefire favourite in the Oscar race, Hollywood's biggest night became a milestone for the gay, lesbian and transgender community.

Three Oscar-nominated films - "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote" and "Transamerica" - dealt with gay or transgender characters, drawing combined 15 Oscar nominations.

However, "Brokeback Mountain," with a leading eight nominations, fail to win major Oscars. Ang Lee did score a golden statue for best directing, and other Oscar nodes to "Brokeback Mountain" include adapted screenplay and original score.

When accepting his trophy for directing "Brokeback Mountain," Ang Lee seemed certain his movie would claim the best film trophy. Lee joked about Independent Spirit Awards, where "Brokeback Mountain" won best picture and director.

"It's been five years since the last time I stood here," Lee said, drawing a big laugh from the Spirit Awards crowd. "But in my mind, I've never left the independent spirit."

Lee thanked the "Brokeback Mountain" fictional characters, who he said taught audiences "the greatness of love, itself."

Gay advocates said the number of Oscars earned by "Brokeback Mountain" wasn't as important as its impact on Hollywood and America.

"The films lead to conversations, and conversations lead to greater awareness, a level of comfort with gay and lesbian Americans," said Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

However, people involved in "Brokeback Mountain" production aren't surprised that the movie lost.

"Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don't want cowboys to be gay," said screen writer Larry McMurtry, who earned an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for "Brokeback."

None of cowboy characters, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, won any Oscar honors for their impressive performance.

Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan also saw "Brokeback's" failure as a sign that Hollywood was not yet ready to accept the topic of homosexual love.

"Despite all the magazine covers it graced, despite (or maybe because of) all the jokes late-night talk show hosts made about it, you could not take the pulse of the industry without realizing that Brokeback Mountain made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable," he added, according to Reuters.

"Brokeback Mountain" was released by Focus Features, a unit of NBC Universal, which is controlled by General Electric Co. 

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