Rev Troy Perry, 1970, First Pride Parade, LA
Honoring visionary LGBTQIA+ young people & community leaders who are taking a stand against fear and declaring "We're not afraid anymore."
Launched in 2016, the Troy Perry Awards program is created in honor of one of the founding fathers of the Pride movement, Rev. Troy D. Perry. The Troy Perry Legacy Awards recognize fearless LGBTQIA+ young people, community leaders & Pride organizations making an impact through social & spiritual activism.
Inaugural Awards 2016
Hollywood, California
The first awards were presented at the W Hotel along Hollywood Boulevard, the site of the first protest marches led by Rev. Troy Perry in the 1960's prior to the Stonewall uprising. One year following Stonewall, Troy conceived and created the world's first permitted Pride parade along this same location in the heart of Los Angeles.
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
 |
human rights defender / uganda
Steven Kabuye
2024
We honor your fearless stand against homophobia in Africa imported by colonization and religious extremism.
Steven Kabuye is an outspoken Ugandan LGBTQIA+ activist, attacked and stabbed in an attempted murder in January 2024. Steven has been advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights for many years and founded the nonprofit Coloured Voices Media Foundation in Kampala, a member of InterPride, the organization of Pride organizers.
Coloured Voices advocates for and promotes the human rights, health and socio-economic well-being of 2SLGBTQI+ youth in Uganda and across the African continent. Steven and Coloured Voices were honored with the 2024 Spirit of Matthew Award from the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
The violent attack on Steven's life followed the enactment of Uganda's Anti Homosexuality Act 2023, the world's most severe anti-LGBTQIA+ law. He continues his advocacy in Canada following his successful relocation with the assistance of Toronto-based Rainbow Railroad, which presented the Troy Perry Medal of Pride to Steven in Vancouver.
Presented by Rainbow Railroad
activist / organizer / namibia
Omar van Reenen
2023
Omar van Reenen is a Namibian human rights activist who advocates for the rights of the LGBT community in Namibia. Van Reenen is the co-founder of the Namibia Pride and the Namibia Equal Rights Movement, a grassroots and youth-led social movement campaigning for equality for LGBT people, fighting for the emancipation and protection of LGBTQ+ Namibians and their Constitutional rights. Omar and Namibia Pride are members of InterPride, the organization of Pride organizers.
We honor your fearless stand against homophobia in Africa imported by colonization and religious extremism.
fashion designer / model / activist / kenya
posthumous honoree
Edwin Chiloba
2023
In January 2023, the body of Kenyan LGBTQIA+ activist, fashion designer and model Edwin Chiloba (born Edwin Kiprotich Kiptoo) was found in metal trunk left by the roadside. The Troy Perry Medal of Pride was presented in January 2024 posthumously to Edwin's chosen family in Kenya.
Experience Edwin's creative and inpsiring life through his photos and videos in our tribute video and virtual gallery.
model compassionate community
San Diego Pride
2022
San Diego Pride works year-round to advocate for and empower LGBTQIA+ youth. From GSA meet-ups to youth-led events, there are many opportunities for LGBTQ youth, faculty and guardians to get involved, including the youth arts show.
Founded in 1974, San Diego Pride has developed a model organization which both supports events and programs, as well as invests back into the local LGBTQ community, making it the most philanthropic Pride in the world, having given over $3 million to LGBTQ-serving organizations locally, nationally, and globally. In 2019, they donated $340,000 to 60 organizations.
artist / writer / organizer / documentarian
Edafe Okporo
2021
Edafe Okporo is a human rights activist from Nigeria, displaced in 2016 due to persecution he faced in his home country based on his sexual orientation and work as an activist. In 2018, Edafe became Director of RDJ Refugee Shelter, New York City's only shelter for refugees. In 2021, Edafe started a nonprofit organization Refuge America, dedicated to storytelling, community and human connection for LGBTQ+ people emigrating to the USA.
Edafe's vision: Strengthening America as a place of welcome for displaced LGBTQ people. Edafe is the author of the book ASYLUM, a Memoir & Manifesto by Simon and Schuster. Edafe is currently in pre-production on a full-length documentary. He is now running for a seat on the City Council of New York City.
Presented by Charter for Compassion
historian / archivist / podcaster
August Bernadaciou
2021
In 2008, when August Bernadaciou was 14 years old, he started recording interviews with LGBTQ activists from the 1950s through the AIDS Crisis. In 2019, at 24 years old, he founded the LGBTQ History Project, which celebrates his archival interviews about unknown and untold LGBTQ liberation and civil rights histories.
Pre-pandemic, he hosted “Intergeneration Dialogues,” which were gay elders in conversations with August. Then, in 2020, he launched "The QueerCore Podcast."
Presented by Charter for Compassion
artist / writer / speaker / india
Anwesh Kumar Sahoo
2018
Anwesh Sahoo is a passionate Indian LGBTQ activist, artist, blogger, writer, model, actor, and TEDx speaker. His “Fitting Out” media campaign gained widespread acclaim while he has been an outspoken supporter of the legalization of homosexuality in India and addressing the atrocities being committed against LGBTQ people in India.
Anwesh is a highly recognized face and a respected voice not just in LGBTQ circles in India but everywhere in the country. He is an accomplished TEDx speaker who is ever willing to speak out, stand up for, and defend the LGBTQ community. He was crowned Mr. Gay World India 2016, becoming the youngest winner of the crown at the age of 20. He represented India at the Mr. Gay World 2016 pageant held in Malta and made it to the Top 12.
He came out as gay to his sister at the age of 16, and by the age of 18 had started writing a blog "The Effeminare," to combat homophobia in his own small way and create awareness related to LGBTIQ issues in India. He went on to write an article for Pink-Pages, a National LGBT Magazine in India.
writer / documentarian / china
Wei Tinging
2017
Wei Tingting is a Chinese LGBTI+ and feminist activist, writer and documentary filmmaker. She is the founder and director of the Guangzhou Gender and Sexuality Education Center. She is one of the "Feminist Five" arrested and detained for 37 days by the Chinese authorities in March 2015, which received worldwide media attention. She was nominated for the Asia LGBT Milestone Awards by ALMA and was listed as one of the “10 Most Inspiring Feminists of 2015” by MS magazine. Her film "Bi China," released in 2017, was the first bisexual documentary in China.
organizer / writer / speaker
Angeline Jackson
2016
Angeline C. Jackson is an LGBT human rights activist, HIV/AIDS educator, and the co-founder and former Executive Director of Quality of Citizenship Jamaica, the first organization specifically for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in Jamaica. Angeline has been involved in human rights activism since 2006 and has worked with the noted attorney and human rights activist Maurice Tomlinson and others in Jamaica and the US.
In 2015, President Barack Obama recognized Angeline Jackson as one of Jamaica's remarkable young leaders at the Town Hall for Youth in Kingston, Jamaica.
Over the years, Angeline has presented at various events and panels and has published several writings on the LGBT situation in Jamaica, and has been quoted and interviewed for numerous media outlets and literature.
Angeline is a Unintarian Universalist Minister. She is also an expert witness for LGBTQ asylum cases, a life coach, and the author of "Funny Gyal: My Fight Against Homophobia in Jamaica." She also leads a small church ministry, Communities of Restoration.
In 2022, Angeline received the Advocate of the Year Award from J-FLAG in Jamaica.
 |
|---|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |