Metro Weekly is currently accepting nominations for the newsmagazine’s first annual Next Generation Awards, recognizing GLBT activists, leaders and artists under the age of 30, who are doing groundbreaking work in the D.C. area.
The winners will be profiled in a special issue of Metro Weekly on April 16.
”There are many awards in the community that recognize a lot of good work being done by a lot of really remarkable people,” says co-publisher Sean Bugg. ”We tend to look back on people who have long careers, and long experiences with activism, and that’s all wonderful because without those people, we wouldn’t enjoy a lot of the things that we do today. But one of the things I really want the Next Generation Awards to do, is to honor people who are making a difference early in their lives, and who we hope will go on to achieve even more in the future.”
The deadline to submit nominations for the awards is March 16. After that, a panel of community activists and leaders will consider the nominations and determine three winners.
The panel is: Mario Acosta-Velez, former president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club; Amy Austin, publisher, Washington City Paper; Everett Hamilton, Principal, Octane Public Relations; Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality; Margaret Murray, executive director of One in Ten; Eric Schaeffer, artistic director of Signature Theatre; Courtney Snowden, past-president of D.C. Black Pride; Adam Tenner, executive director of Metro Teen AIDS; and Joseph Truong, past president of AQUA-DC.
”We’re all very excited by this opportunity to highlight some of the best and brightest in our local community,” says Bugg. ”The leadership, activism and artistic work that young GLBT people are doing is what makes our community’s future brighter.”
Download Metro Weekly’s nomination form at www.metroweekly.com/nextgeneration.