The National Center for Transgender Equality will honor two prominent transgender advocates and a staunch ally of the transgender community at its 14th anniversary event, Forward Together, May 25 in Washington, DC.
Gavin Grimm, the transgender high school student embroiled in a legal battle with his school board over his right to use the boys’ restroom at school, will receive the Andrew Cray Award. Grimm has been thrust into the national spotlight as a public representative of the transgender community, handling it with poise and grace. The Andrew Cray Award is a memorial in recognition of another remarkable young transgender man who left an indelible mark on transgender advocacy, particularly in the realm of health care.
Gunner Scott, who currently serves as director of programs at the Pride Foundation, will receive the Julie Johnson Founder’s Award for his 20-year-long career in advocacy for transgender people. Scott’s legacy is most visible in Massachusetts, where he led an eventually successful campaign to pass nondiscrimination measures for transgender people in the state as the executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. His award, which he will receive for the second time, is named for one of NCTE’s early board members.
Vanita Gupta, former acting head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, will receive the organization’s Ally Award for her unflagging dedication to advancing civil rights for transgender people. During her time as a law enforcement leader from 2015 until the end of the Obama administration, she oversaw a historic shift in the division’s actions on transgender issues, including joint guidance from the Departments of Education and Justice on providing equal opportunities to transgender students and a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina for allowing state-sanctioned discrimination in the form of the anti-transgender law HB 2.
For more information on NCTE’s 14th anniversary celebration, Forward Together, visit http://www.transequality.org/forwardtogether.
