Brody's Notes... Stonewall Youth Awards Celebrate Champions Of LGBT Equality

Tim Williams, HR Director for Pearson Education, presents Danny Fryer with the Campaigner of the Year award. 
Photo Courtesy of Stonewall UK

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 18 | In the first awards ceremony of its kind, the Stonewall Youth Awards took place in London last night, according to Stonewall's Communications Director, Gary Nunn. The new event celebrates the impact Stonewall’s Youth Volunteers are having on combating homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools.

Fifty people attended the event at Pearson publishers. Sixteen year old Danny Fryer from Birmingham was named Stonewall Young Campaigner of the Year. Danny’s campaign focused on a peer mentoring programme for lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils attending schools and colleges to help them overcome underachievement as a result of homophobic bullying.

Collecting his award, Danny said: 

‘I’m genuinely shocked but very honoured to win this award. Working with Stonewall is my main passion – and seeing the effects of my volunteering on lesbian, gay and bisexual young people is the greatest benefit. It’s fantastic to inspire young people to tackle homophobia and to support them to stop being a victim of it."

Fifteen other Stonewall Youth Volunteers from across the country who run their own original campaigns in their local schools, colleges or local communities were also celebrated at the ceremony.

The V-funded Stonewall Youth Volunteering Programme was launched in 2008 and since then has trained 150 young people to tackle homophobic bullying in their own local communities. This weekend, Stonewall will hold its next youth training camp, where 30 young people aged 16 - 21 will learn how to run their own original and high-impact campaigns to tackle homophobia.