Graeme Obree, Karen Dunbar, Michelle Visage, Angela Crawley, the makers of Transexual Stories - all amazing winners at the very fabulous Icon awards, celebrating the LGBTi community, on Friday night. It was wonderful and hard really to believe that my name was among them, that I too was a winner of an Icon award, my own in the category of journalism. For me, though, this is a very treasured award. I have long been a strong believer in LGBTi rights and in celebrating diversity. I believe in equality for all, in all areas of life, whether it be work, marriage, relationships, education. I also would like our society to be a shameless one. And by that I mean one in which there is no shame or embarrassment, no bullying or mockery, inflicted on those who are simply being themselves. But for me, the award wasn't really about me. It was for the many amazing people who have told me their stories or given me their views. It is for Susan and Gerrie Douglas Scott, the first lesbian couple to officially marry at the end of last year, and for Joe Schofield and Malx Brown, the first gay couple to do so. It is for Nathan Gale, Maki Yamazaki and Robin Duval who told me what it was like to live a transgender non binary life; and Eilidh Nicolson who told me of her passage to becoming a transwoman. It is for beauty queen Jai Latto, who won Miss Transgender United last month. It’s for the gay parents who told me stories of their pathways to parenthood. It’s for the Equality Network who have always helped with stories. All of them are my personal LGBTi icons. But it's also for the Sunday Herald and its editors. It's not for nothing that they are sponsors of the award. The team have long been firm backers of LGBTi rights and have encouraged me to pursue the stories I did. This week's hate crime report reminds us that the LGBTi fight is far from over. There are many stories still to tell.
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