The cowboy romance “Brokeback Mountain” led the Golden Globes on Monday with four prizes, including best dramatic film and the directing honor for Ang Lee.

It was a triumphant night for films dealing with homosexuality and transsexuality. Along with the victories for “Brokeback Mountain,” acting honors went to Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery in “Transamerica” and Philip Seymour Hoffman as gay author Truman Capote in “Capote.”

“I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are and so I would like to salute the men and women who brave ostracism, alienation and a life lived on the margins to become who they really are,” Huffman said.

The Johnny Cash biography “Walk the Line” won the Globe for best musical or comedy film and earned acting honors for stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

Director Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” the story of two rugged Western family men (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) concealing their affair, has emerged as a front-runner for the Oscars, which occasionally have handed out top acting prizes for performers in homosexual or gender-bending roles but have never given the best-picture Oscar to a gay-themed film.

Oscar nominations come out Jan. 31, with the awards presented March 5.

“Brokeback Mountain” also won for best screenplay and song, “A Love That Will Never Grow Old.”

Phoenix and Witherspoon won for best actor and actress in a movie musical or comedy for the biopic that follows country legend Cash’s career and his long courtship with the love of his life, June Carter.

The Globe audience clapped along to Cash’s song “I Walk the Line” as Phoenix took the stage.

“Who would ever have thought that I would win in the comedy or musical category?” said Phoenix, poking fun at his image for dark, brooding roles. “Not expected.”

Phoenix, who did his own singing in the film, thanked “John and June for sharing their life with all of us.”

“This film is really important to me,” said Witherspoon, who offers a spirited performance and fine singing as Carter. “It’s about where I grew up, it’s about the music I grew up listening to, so it’s very meaningful.”

George Clooney, who was among the directing nominees for “Good Night, and Good Luck,” won the supporting-actor Globe for the oil-industry thriller “Syriana” and Rachel Weisz earned the supporting-actress prize for the murder thriller “The Constant Gardener.”

Click here to see a complete list of winners