TheGayUK announces its first ever New Year’s Recognition list, to acknowledge the massive support and campaigning efforts that companies, organisations and individuals have made to the LGBT community.
2012 has been an incredibly important year with the addition of many new faces, who have joined the fight for equality and fairness for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered people around the globe. It’s an ongoing process and we’re not there yet, however thanks to the tireless work of these people, we are progressing.
ACTIVISM, AWARENESS AND POLITICS
AllOut.Org
Online Petitioning Website.
Is an online petitioning, activism and awareness organisation which rallies it’s near 1.3m members to sign petitions and get involved in the historic movement for equality for all gay, straight, bisexual and transgendered people. From social networking to targeted emails AllOut.org uses multilingual real-time campaigns to inform, educate, and engage the public. This year some of its high profile campaigns have been to petition ministers in Uganda, Nigeria, France, Cameroon and Brazil.
Connor Marron and James Lattimore
Co-founders of the marriage equality campaign C4EM.
Are the co-founders of the Coalition for Equal Marriage (C4EM), which was the counter organisation in response ‘to a much publicised campaign (Coalition for Marriage) to derail the government’s plans to move towards greater equality for LGBT Couples’. Since it’s debut on the web the C4EM Petition has garnered an amazing 64,395 signatures and their ‘Homecoming’ video on YouTube has been seen over 888,000 times.
www.c4em.org.uk
David Cameron
Prime Minster of the United Kingdom.
This government’s push for same sex marriage and striving for equality for the LGBT community has been nothing short of admirable. David Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minster to fight for the rights of gays, lesbians and bisexuals in such an overt way. Even with opposition from unhappy backbenchers and the reported threat of ripping the party apart David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg have pushed against the odds to promise marriage equality by 2013
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HEALTH
56 Dean Street
The UK’s most popular sexual health clinic in London.
A remarkable clinic in the heart of London’s Soho, which is the most popular sexual health service in the UK. Jake Jenkins and Jenna Thomas from the Clinic teamed up with TheGayUK to create the first online sexual health clinic for the gay community in December. Readers can submit their queries confidentially to the clinic and Jake and Jenna respond with advice for all our readers to benefit from. The clinic also has a outreach project where they do ‘walk in’ HIV testing in G-A-Y.
www.chelwest.nhs.uk/56deanstreet
Spencer Cox (Posthumous)
Health activist for AIDS.
Spencer Cox, AIDS activist who died at the age of 44. His activism helped push innovative antiretroviral drugs to market, creating the first effective drug protocols to combat the syndrome. He died of AIDS related causes in Manhattan, New York, on the 18th December 2012.
London Lesbian And Gay Switchboard
Helpline and support network.
Founded in 1974 the LLGS information and support line operated for 5 hours every evening from a small room above a bookshop in Kings Cross. As the AIDS epidemic began to take hold in the 80s, LLGS’s services grew to deal with the public’s growing concern and became the leading source of information for the then unknown virus, HIV. LLGS has kept its phone lines open for the last 39 years. www.llgs.org.uk
EDUCATION
Shaun Dellenty
Educator, campaigner, author and speaker.
Shaun Dellenty was featured in this year’s Pink List by the Independent on Sunday. Mr. Shaun is a deputy head teacher in South London who has tackled homosexual bullying with government minsters as well as writing books for teachers and children on the subject. In 2009 Dellenty undertook research in his own school to discover whether the statistics reflected those of The Teachers’ Report, his findings pushed him to create ‘Inclusion for All’ in 2010. www.shaundellenty.com
Tim Franks
Campaigner, activist, outreach and charity worker.
Tim’s work with the LGBT community spans more than twenty tears beginning with his involvement with a youth group project in Nottingham. He went to create much needed outreach projects – including in-school workshops, he co-founded Nottingham Pride and various projects to promote sexual health and emotional support. He moved to London to work for The Metro Centre before joining the charity PACE in 2007 as the CEO, a role he held until he retired in September 2012. He was nominated for a Stonewall Award in 2012.
NoHomophobes.com
Website launched to show the extensive use of homophobia on social networks.
“Homophobic language isn’t always meant to be hurtful, but how often do we use it without thinking.”
NoHomophobes.com was launched in July 2012 as a ‘social mirror’ to show the extensiveness of ‘casual homophobia’. Counting words like Faggot, NoHomo, SoGay and Dyke on the social networking site Twitter, it shows how these terms are being used in everyday conversation – despite their contribution to the alienation, isolation and in some cases, suicide amongst the LGBT community.
RUComingOut.com and Wayne Dhesi
Founder of the coming out website RUComingOut.com.
Wayne and his website RUComingOut.com have come a long way since it was created in March 2012. It encourages users to share their coming out stories and their shared experiences. The site offers readers loads of inspirational real-life coming out stories and is a valuable resource for those who are considering coming out, want to understand the process or share their own experiences. In December Wayne Dhesi interviewed Scissor Sister’s Jake Shears for the site, who talked candidly about his own coming out experience.
ENTERTAINMENT
Doctor Christian Jessen
Presenter, sexual health and HIV expert.
The face of programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies, Supersize V.s Super-skinny, Hotel GB and Channel 4’s Stand Up to Cancer, openly gay doctor, Christian has been an almost permanent fixture on our television screens this year. He was the first celebrity to accept an invitation for an interview for TheGayUK and really helped us grow. In July 2012 writing in the Evening Standard Dr. Jessen talked openly and candidly about how homophobic abuse can destroy lives, drawing upon his own painful experience of his school friend Paul who hanged himself, because he couldn’t face being gay. Jessen is also a pioneering sexual health and HIV awareness campaigner and expert – and full time self confessed Twitter addict who often offers health advice to followers who tweet him questions.
Geo Wyett
Transgender musician and composer.
New York City based musician and performer. Wyett is an out Male to Female transexual born in New York. He performed at London’s Soho Theatre this year as well as releasing his captivating debut album Alien Tapes. Geo’s enchanting and inspiring performance led to an appearance on the BBC’s Later With Jools Holland. www.twitter.com/geowyeth
Soho Theatre
Soho’s very own theatre, set in the heart of London.
With a remit to bring London ‘the most entertaining brave and theatrical new work’ the Soho Theatre is the home of some of the most talented theatre. Busting with energy, bursting with ability, buzzing with excitement, the Soho Theatre is a leader in all-inclusive theatre.
SPORTS
Nicola Adams MBE
Boxer.
Nicola topped this year’s Independent On Sunday Pink List. The openly bisexual flyweight boxer, made history when she fought her way to a gold medal in this year’s London Olympics. Adams persevered with the sport for more than a decade, because representing the UK, let alone winning a gold was not an option for women; having been banned in most nations for most of the twentieth century. In 2009 it was announced that the International Olympic Committee had approved the inclusion of women’s boxing for the Games in London, paving the way for Adams’ success.
Lee Pearson CBE
Paralympic equestrian.
Lee Pearson took home his 10th Gold Medal this year. He also added a bonze and silver to his collection. Pearson was made an MBE in 2001 for services to Disabled sports, in 2005 he was promoted to an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for services to Equestrianism and to Disabled Sport and to CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2009 New Year Honours “for services to Equestrianism and to Disabled Sport”
Greg Louganis
Diver, author and awareness advocate.
Greg is an openly gay American Olympic gold medalist for diving and best selling author, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. Since his diagnosis was made public Louganis has been an awareness advocate for HIV, having working with the ‘Human Rights Campaign’ numerous times. He is also an active speaker for youth clubs, drugs and alcohol rehabilitation groups, and organisations for the dyslexic. He was a mentor to the US diving team at the London 2012 Olympics.
