LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Awards
About LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Awards
The LGBTQ Center is a product of campus-based advocacy on the part of students, staff, and faculty who saw the need for a more centralized and visible space to serve the needs of LGBTQIA+ students and issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity. In honor of that legacy, we recognize individuals and small teams that are advocating, educating, improving policies, and raising awareness about issues related to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for UNC-Chapel Hill community members of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions.
Eligibility
- Graduating UNC-Chapel Hill Undergraduate students, Graduate and Professional students including LGBTQ Center student staff (graduate assistants and work-study employees) are eligible
- UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty, PostDocs, and Staff are eligible
- LGBTQ Center professional staff (Director, Assistant Director, and Administrative Support Specialist) are not eligible.
Awards Selection Committee
LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Awards Committee is ideally comprised of two (2) staff members, faculty members, undergraduate students, graduate/professional students, and alums. Our goal is to create a committee that represents as much diversity of experience as possible. To that end, the application includes optional, confidential questions about personal identities, the details of which will not be shared with other committee members.
Committee application
The committee application is typically open from late January to late February. Committee members will meet twice to review nomination form submissions and select the LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Award recipients based on preset criteria.
Awards Nominations
Nominations should reflect the ways a nominated individual or team has met one or more of the following criteria:
- Advocated on behalf of LGBTQIA+ individuals or groups
- Conducted educational programming or beneficial research regarding LGBTQIA+ communities
- Helped to improve campus or community policies affecting LGBTQ-identified persons
- Enhanced visibility and awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues
We are particularly interested in work done from an intersectional framework, meaning that it accounted for the fact that people experience the world in very different ways depending on the constellation of socially privileged and marginalized identities they hold.
The Advocacy Awards nomination form for 2024 is OPEN. The winners for each category will receive their letter by Monday, April 21st and all award recipients will be honored at the 2024 Lavender Graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 5th.
Past Awardees
The LGBTQ Center has the honor of presenting these awards since 2015. They were initially only awarded to individual graduating students, and have now expanded to recognize faculty, staff, and small groups.
