The Iris Prize, established in 2007 by Berwyn Rowlands of The Festivals Company, is an international LGBTQ film prize and festival which is open to any film which is by, for, about or of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex audiences and which must have been completed within two years of the prize deadline.
Petter Wallenberg is a multi-awarded Swedish artist, author, director and human rights advocate. He is the founding director of Bland drakar och dragqueens, a multi-awarded theatre production where famous drag queens perform stories to children. Petter is also the founding director of Rainbow Riots, an award-winning non-profit organisation that uses arts and culture to advocate for human rights for LGBT people globally. He has composed and produced several critically acclaimed music albums and in 2013 book "Historien om Leila K" was released in Sweden.
Autostraddle is a queer and trans-owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women, as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer feminist media source" that features content covering LGBTQ and feminist news, politics, opinion, culture, arts and entertainment as well as lifestyle content such as DIY crafting, sex, relationships, fashion, food and technology.
Crissle West is an American writer and comedian. She is best known as the co-host of the pop culture podcast The Read. She has starred in episodes of Drunk History, on which she has told the story of Harriet Tubman's work as a Union spy during the Civil War, as well as Marsha P. Johnson and the Stonewall riot.
Matt Lambert is an American, Berlin-based filmmaker, creative director and photographer working across film, television, fashion, advertising, music and performance. He is known for LGBT-themed works.
Jonathan McDonald Van Ness, also commonly referred to by his initials J.V.N, is an American hairstylist, podcast host and television personality. He is best known as the grooming expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye, for his work on the web series parody Gay of Thrones, and for hosting the Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness podcast. He is also known for comedy tours, the 2023 tour entitled Fun & Slutty with Jonathan Van Ness.
The Vixen is the stage name of Anthony Prince Taylor, an American drag performer, best known for competing on the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and placing seventh. Her appearance on the show was notable for raising a conversation around racial dynamics both among her fellow drag queens and in the show's fandom. She is the founder of Black Girl Magic, a drag show consisting of only African-American queens. In August 2020, she released Commercial Break, her debut album.
Tommy Pico is a Native American writer, poet, and podcast host.
Shon Faye is an English writer, editor, journalist, and presenter, known for her commentary on LGBTQ+, women's, and mental health issues. She hosts the podcast Call Me Mother and is the author of the 2021 book The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice. She was an editor-at-large at Dazed and has contributed features and comment journalism to The Guardian, The Independent, VICE, n+1, Attitude, Vogue, Verso and others.
Rainbow Riots is a non-profit organisation that creates arts and cultural projects to advocate for human rights for LGBTQ people around the world. It was founded in 2012 by Petter Wallenberg, a Swedish artist, musician, director and human rights activist, who creates artistic collaborations with fellow LGBT people all over the world to advocate for equality.
Joseph S. Osmundson is an American biophysicist and writer. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Biology at New York University. Osmundson is the author of various books exploring bodies, queerness, race, and geography.
Zach Stafford is a journalist and the former editor-in-chief of The Advocate magazine. He is currently a columnist at MSNBC. Stafford won a Tony Award in 2022 as one of the co-producers of A Strange Loop.
Dragonsani "Drago" Renteria is a Chicano social justice, LGBTQ+ rights activist, community leader, educator, editor, historian, and artist.
Making Gay History is an oral history podcast on the subject of LGBT history, featuring trailblazers, activists, and allies. Most episodes draw on the three-decade-old audio archive of rare interviews conducted by the podcast's founder and host Eric Marcus in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Samantha Leigh Allen is an American journalist and author. Allen worked as a senior reporter for The Daily Beast and now works as Senior Culture Editor at Them. In 2019 she published the nonfiction book Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted inequities experienced by marginalized populations, and has had a significant impact on the LGBT community. Pride events were cancelled or postponed worldwide. More than 220 gay pride celebrations around the world were canceled or postponed in 2020, and in response a Global Pride event was hosted online. LGBTQ+ people also tend to be more likely to have pre-existing health conditions, such as asthma, HIV/AIDS, cancer, or obesity, that would worsen their chances of survival if they became infected with COVID-19. They are also more likely to smoke.
LGBTQ&A is a podcast hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine in partnership with GLAAD. It features interviews with notable LGBTQ figures such as Pete Buttigieg, Laverne Cox, Janelle Monáe, Brandi Carlile, and Roxane Gay. It was launched in 2016 and as of July 2022 has conducted over 250 interviews. The series features a range of LGBTQ guests including activists, politicians, and members of the entertainment industry.
Nature Poem is a book-length poem written by Tommy Pico, a Native American poet born and raised on Viejas Indian Reservation of Kumeyaay nation. It was published by Tin House in 2017. It was preceded by the publication of IRL (2016), followed by both Junk (2018) and Feed (2019). Nature Poem was written in first-person narration following the character Teebs, a queer “NDN”. Teebs is a fictional character, and a development of Pico’s alter-ego and performance persona. Teebs confronts the stereotypes put upon him by white colonialism, such as Indian Americans' association with nature, by refusing to write a nature poem.
