Hero or zero?

Thursday, 9 October 2008

It’s the gong every girl – and boy – craves. The Stonewall Awards reflect the heroes and zeroes of gay life and culture and this year the list of nominees shows just how far we have come since the dark days of Mary Whitehouse or section 28. With this selection of personalities, campaigners, politicians and broadcasters life inside the closet feels a long time gone. Launched in 2006 the Stonewall Awards are designed to celebrate the range of positive contributions being made by individuals and organisations to the lives of gay people in Britain.

The 2008 nominees are;

Broadcast/er of the Year
1. Fi Glover (Saturday Live - Radio 4)
2. Skins (C4)
3. The Sunday Night Project (C4)
4. Sandi Toksvig (The News Quiz and Excess Baggage)
5. Wife Swap (C4)

Entertainer of the Year
1. Simon Amstell (Never Mind the Buzzcocks)
2. Amy Lamé (TV and radio personality)
3. Sue Perkins (Maestro, The Supersizers Go…)
4. Mary Portas (Queen of Shops)
5. Sam Sparro (pop singer)

Journalist of the Year
1. Julie Bindel (The Guardian)
2. Joshua Hunt (thelondonpaper)
3. Suzanne Moore (Mail on Sunday)
4. Karl Riley (Boyz)
5. Miriam Stoppard (The Daily Mirror)

Politician of the Year
1. Lord Alli
2. Lord Carlile
3. Maria Eagle MP
4. Patrick Harvie MSP
5. Emily Thornberry MP

Publication of the Year
1. Attitude
2. The Herald
3. The Independent
4. Out In The City
5. Time Out

Stonewall Sports Award
1. Clare Balding
2. BLAGSS - Brighton Lesbian and Gay Sports Society
3. Ben Cohen
4. Matthew Mitcham
5. Stonewall Lions FC

Writer of the Year
1. Jonathan Coe (The Rain Before it Falls)
2. Stella Duffy (The Room of Lost Things)
3. Philip Hensher (The Northern Clemency)
4. Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Her Naked Skin)
5. Adam Mars-Jones (Pilcrow)

Hero of the Year - chosen by Stonewall supporters

1. Rev'd Martin Dudley - blessed the civil partnership of two friends, both gay priests, in June at St Bartholomew's Church in the City of London. Courageously defied critics demanding an apology, insisting he had no regrets.

2. Natalie Gamble - prominent in the campaign to secure equal legal recognition for same-sex families and an end to discrimination against lesbians in fertility treatment.

3. Brian Paddick - formerly Britain's most senior gay police officer, Brian Paddick turned his talent and outspokenness to the political arena with his nomination as the Liberal Democrat's candidate to be Mayor of London.

4. Rt Rev'd Gene Robinson - openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire. Has bravely endured sustained personal attacks in recent months, as church debate on homosexuality has intensified.

5. Rose Troche - writer and director of smash hit US TV show The L Word, groundbreaking in its portrayal of lesbian lives and relationships. She also directed the seminal Go Fish.

Bigot of the Year - chosen by Stonewall supporters

1. Lord Devon - Earlier this year, the 18th Earl of Devon unlawfully refused to permit civil partnership celebrations as well as weddings at Powderham Castle, his ancestral seat.

2. Heinz - the corporation caved in to a small number of orchestrated complaints and withdrew their light-hearted Deli Mayo TV ad following claims that a so-called 'gay kiss' between two men would confuse and damage children.

3. Lillian Ladele - Islington registrar who refused to perform civil partnerships because of her disgust at same-sex unions, even though paid from the public purse to serve all the community.

4. Bishop of Motherwell - Roman Catholic bishop claimed gay people use the Holocaust to get sympathy. On Sir Ian McKellen's New Year's honour for services to equality said 'A century ago, Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail.'

5. Iris Robinson MP - just weeks after suggesting that gay people could be 'cured', describing homosexuality as 'disgusting', 'loathsome' and 'an abomination', in June the Unionist MP went on to say: 'There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality, than sexually abusing innocent children.'

To buy tickets for the Stonewall Awards 2008 at The V&A Museum, London on Thursday 6th November www.stonewall.org.uk/events/1404.asp