An annual awards ceremony for the LGBT+ community is set to return to the Council house in Old Market Square on February 22 from 7pm until 9pm. The event is organised by Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire Rainbow Heritage.
The event aims to recognise the achievements of those who have done a lot for the community. The two-hour celebration and the award ceremony are now in their 15th year.
Local groups and organisations from LGBT+ booksellers to the Nottingham Police often hold stalls which showcase what they are doing for the community or their products. It's a chance for the community to see what different groups like choirs or football are out there to join.
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Previous winners of the awards include Debbie Law, the former owner of the New Foresters pub, Victoria Villasenor and Nicci Robinson of Global Wordsmiths for the unique annual Bold Strokes LGBT Book Festival and several collections of local LGBT memoirs.
David Edgeley of Notts LGBT+ Network said: "The awards stemmed from the original application to the Heritage Lottery which was made in 2007 where we got the award for doing things to record and preserve LGBT+ history. We also wanted to celebrate it so in February, we put on an exhibition in a gallery and someone suggested we should show recognition for those who had done good things that benefitted the community."
In the past, the ceremony has had speeches from people such as Peter Tatchell and Professor Gregory Woods who was Nottingham Trent University's Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies. Winners of the award also speak about what they do.
Sadly, the event may be in its final year as the organisers are set to retire, however, David is hoping someone will take over and keep it going. He recalls some of the memorable nights over the years.
"We had the award on the worst night of the year in 2008 when there was a blizzard due to the Beast from the East. Despite that, 70 people showed up and we thought that was amazing. One of the awards was for The Centre Place in Worksop which do great things for young people in Bassetlaw. However, they couldn't travel because of the weather so it was postponed till the year after."
"It was a memorable evening and we had quite the journey getting home after that. We also gave an award to Tim Frank who used to work in what became Healthy Gay Nottingham and to Debbie Law who is the only person to receive two."
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