PinkNews Awards 2019: Nominees revealed for Campaigner of the Year
The PinkNews awards Campaigner of the Year 2019 shortlist: Susie Green (top left), Jamie Windust (top right), Khakan Qureshi (bottom left) and Ruth Hunt (bottom right. (Getty)
The PinkNews Awards’ Campaigner of the Year recognises the work of campaigners and activists across the world to advance LGBT+ equality.
In 2018, campaigners who fought to decriminalise gay sex in India were honoured with the Campaigner of the Year award.
On September 6 2018, the Indian Supreme Court struck down Section 377, a British colonial-era law banning gay sex. The Campaigner of the Year award was picked up on behalf of all the people involved in the legal case by Indian-born gay couple Subodh Rathod and Niranjan Kamatkar.
The winner of the 2019 award will be announced at the PinkNews Awards on October 16.
You can cast your vote here.
Ruth Hunt.
Ruth Hunt was the CEO of leading LGBT+ charity Stonewall from 2014 to 2019. She oversaw Stonewall’s inclusion of transgender people into its campaigning remit in 2015.
In 2019, she was given a peerage in Theresa May’s September honours list for her services to the LGBT+ community.
Hunt will join the House of Lords as a cross-bench peer. She is the fourth lesbian to join the house, out of 300 members.
Hunt will take up her role in the Lords alongside her day job as co-director of Deeds and Words with Caroline Ellis, a business that works to help organisations build inclusive cultures.
Susie Green.
Susie Green is the CEO of Mermaids, a UK-based charity that supports trans and gender non-conforming children and their families.
Green has been a trustee of Mermaids for 10 years. She set up the charity after supporting her own daughter, who is trans.
The trans kids charity was awarded a £500,000 grant by the National lottery at the beginning of this year to continue its work.
Jamie Windust.
Jamie Windust is a non-binary activist and writer. They founded award-winning LGBT+ magazine Fruitcake and write for a number of publications, including Metro and Gay Times.
In 2019, they started a petition asking the government to add a non-binary option for gender identity on legal documents. By the time the petition ended more than 20,000 people had signed it.
Windust also models and is signed to Crumb Agency in London.
Khakan Qureshi.
Khakan Qureshi is a gay Muslim activist.
He is the founder of Find Your Voice, a volunteer-led Birmingham organisation for LGBTIQ South Asians in the UK who are over the age of 18, regardless of faith or religion.
Qureshi is also a Diversity Role Model for Stonewall.
