9 Nominees Were Awarded with the Equality Awards

December 12, The Equality Awards were given to 9 individuals, activists and supporters of LGBT+ community, who contributed the improvement of LGBT+ rights. The Equality Awards winners were selected by a special jury comprising members of Equality Movement, from the partner NGOs’ and community members. The ninth award was given by Equality Movement to the winner.

The winners are:

Success Bar

The Success Bar has become an important space for LGBT people and supporters of the queer community in general. Today, and especially in the previous years, for queer people which still lack the visibility because of widespread homophobia when there was a small number of friendly places for queer community, it was of uttermost importance to have a place where one can get to know each other and to express their gender identity or sexual orientation freely. The Equality Award goes to Success Bar represented by Nia Gvatua, the owner of the bar.

Archbishop Malkhaz Songhulashvili

The Equality Awards holder is a person who has been promoting LGBT+ community for many years in his deeds or words, sermons and impressive public letters. We know him as the unconditional defender of equality and humanity for whom human being is at the forefront and not being as the head of the hierarchy. He is a high priest who exemplifies that priesthood is about caring for people. The Equality Award was given to Malkhaz Songhulashvili, Archbishop of the Evangelical-Baptist Church of Georgia.

Mano Svanidze

The Equality Award was given to a photographer who’s works tackles stereotypes about transgender women. Her author’s projects, Tomorrow’s Song, 5 Second Rule tell about the lives of transgender women. Importantly, Mano manages not to overlap the individual needs that two transgender women may have when describing one of the challenges shared by a certain group of people. In her projects, Mano Svanidze creates non stereotypical, natural, native, emotional images.

Varlam Malania

While Equality Movement speaks about systemic problems and criticizes policy makers, it does not forget to mention the merits of those employed in this system who have daily contact with members of the LGBT community. He was nominated on behalf of the transgender people. The award will be given to a policeman who has a great deal of trust among most vulnerable people – transgender persons, without prejudice and with professionalism. The Equality Award was given to police officer Varlam Malania.

Yuri

Our next winner is a person who has made a significant contribution to the development of Drag culture in Georgia. They is often represented in the jury at the Doug Balls organized by Equality Movement and also supports community members in various ways. The Equality Award granted to Yuri.

Gabriella

Self-organization is an important challenge for the LGBT community, an important challenge for transgender people too. Equality Movement welcomes and promotes the emergence of individual actors for the protection of their rights. Gabriella is exactly the person who has contributed to the empowerment of trans community. She is always ready to help her sisters.

Tamar Mchedlishvili

Tamar Mchedlishvili worked as a lawyer at Equality Movement. During her tenure she was doing his job perfectly, often combining the functions of a social worker and never swept back doing more than his profession required. Tamar works in the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and contributes significantly to the better investigation of hate crimes. We constantly feel support from her for working on particularly risky and vulnerable cases, ensuring proper police involvement.

Avtandil Contselidze

Today, when queer people struggling for better life and happiness, often their parents, family members are less likely to stand with them. Parents are less willing to accept their children sexual orientation or gender identity and to support them.

The winner of the Equality Award is Avtandil Contselidze, the grandfather of late transgender woman Lika. Lika died in 2018 at the age of 24. Her body was not taken home. Parents wrote the boy’s name “Avtuka” on the tombstone. Avtandil Contselidze was caring for Lika in the last days of her life, when neither her mother nor her father or other family members were visiting her. Although he doesn’t have accurate information on the LGBT + issues, he firmly believes that exclusion is inadmissible. She also played a big role in publicly speaking about the attitude of family members towards the LGBT + community. Avtandil Contselidze is an example of how one can definitely love family member.

And Then We Danced

The last, ninth, award is given by Equality Movement. This award was selected by an independent jury comprising representatives of Equality Movement and other organizations. We didn’t want to miss the event of the year that had a profound impact on public life. We would like to gratefully acknowledge the courage shown by the creative team of the film And Then We Danced.

The Equality Awards is an act of gratitude for LGBTQ activists and supporters who have a particular impact on changing attitudes towards LGBTQ people in society. With this event, we will strive to further strengthen the link between the LGBTQ community and support groups.