Over 2000 people were nominated with Australian LGBTI Awards, across 18 categories

Comedian Hannah Gadsby, Wallabies star David Pocock, Singer Kira Puru and former SBS CEO Michael Ebeid are just some of the names nominated for Australia’s biggest awards dedicated to celebrating the LGBTI community and their allies, the 2019 Australian LGBTI Awards. Over 2000 people were nominated across 18 categories, including International and Local Icon of the year, Sports Personality, Ally, Brand and Marketing Campaign, Community Initiative/Charity and Inspirational Role Model.

Two new categories have been added for the 3^rd annual awards; Artist and Faith. The Artist Award highlights the cultural work done to keep LGBTQI issues visible in the arts. Our Finalists include Theatre Directors, Authors, Drag Performers, Photographers, Film Directors, Comedians and Visual Artists. The Faith category acknowledges the inspiring work done by individuals and religious organisations to improve homophobic attitudes within religious organisations.

Winners will be announced at a special red carpet gala dinner on Friday 1 March 2019 at The Star, Sydney.

The 2018 LGBTI Awards saw a star-studded list of community leaders, celebrities and organisations coming out for the celebrations, including the likes of Lea DeLaria, Yael Stone, Danielle Brooks, Lucy Lawless, Magda Szubanski, Joel Creasey, Ollie Henderson, and Jordan Raskopoulos.

“The most exciting part of the Finalists process is that every year we see new people and new organisations who have made an impact over the last 12 month, in a positive way,” said Australian LGBTI Awards funding Director, Silke Bader

“Celebrating those involved in the marriage equality campaign was a big part of last year’s event. This year with the awards we wanted to shine a light on other areas where positive role models are making a difference.  The faith category is a great example of this. There are many individuals and religious organisations that really stand up to fight for the recognition and acceptance for their LGBTQI community members and we felt it important to recognise that this year,” continued Bader.

There are two main groups to the awards, the Public Award Category and the Corporate Award Category. The Public Award categories are entirely decided by the public vote. Voting for the below-shortlisted nominees is now open at www.australianlgbtiawards.com.au.

PUBLIC AWARDS SHORTLIST

The Corporate Award Category looks at CEOs and Diversity Champions in the business sector. The winners in these categories will be decided by an esteemed judging panel that includes Broadcaster Anton Enus, JP Morgan Chief Economist Sally Auld, Chair of The Pinnacle Foundation Paul Zahra, DoW Leader of Public and Government Affairs Taimor T Hazou and Actors Leah Purcell and Andre Guy.

CORPORATE AWARDS SHORTLIST

The event’s most prestigious award, the Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis. Papps and Curtis were important members of Australia’s first known homosexual rights community – The Australasian Lesbian Movement (ALM). Through ALM they’d supported women to ‘come out in the ultra-conservative early ’70s. They’d host club meetings in their home, take in women who’d left their husbands or been rejected by family, and host mixer drinks for women to start dating. Throughout their lives, they advocated for the lesbian community, worked with the Gay and Lesbian Archives, and helped women from the ground up.

The Australian LGBTI Award encourages the community to vote start voting. The more members of the LGBTI community that vote, the better the awards will reflect the community. The Australian LGBTI Awards is a chance to say thank you to esteemed individuals and to celebrate the diverse community that we have in Australia.