Last week, PGN celebrated its fourth-annual Best of LGBT Philly awards, where our readers recognized the best of the best among community leaders, nonprofits and businesses. Throughout this process, one thing was abundantly clear: Our community is rife with incredible talent and unbelievable energy.
When the PGN team got to working on crafting categories, we had a tough time trying to narrow down the number of awards; the more we discussed, the more fields we came up with where we knew LGBT folks are thriving. We ultimately pared down the list to a few-dozen categories, but the contest could have easily encompassed many, many more awards, demonstrating how wide of a reach our community has.
When it came to voting, we were repeatedly impressed by the level of enthusiasm our readers had. From promoting the contest in favor of their favorites on social media to bombarding our office with paper ballots, our readers were eager to show their picks that their efforts deserve recognition. Once we calculated the results, we got to notifying the winners, which was a rewarding experience; our staff loved hearing the excitement from the winners, not for our own gratification but because we know that many of these folks don’t get the credit they deserve.
These winners work each day to advance our community, from large-scale efforts like pressing LGBT-rights issues in Harrisburg or organizing citywide events that promote visibility of the full diversity of our community, to seemingly smaller efforts like running their everyday businesses as places where LGBT people can feel welcomed, valued and included. The work that they — and all of the nominees — invest each day in our community is often undervalued, yet it is invaluable. The collective successes they have achieved for our community — from the tangible victories to the more symbolic wins of securing broader acceptance — are both impressive and inspiring.
With or without recognition, these leaders would continue to make strides for our community, and that’s a lesson we were all impacted by. And for each winner we recognized, there are many others who are laboring for LGBT equality daily. We thank all of the individuals and organizations whose tireless efforts make our community the brilliant and flourishing entity that it is.