Seven other award-winners such as Journalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year will be selected by a panel including BBC sports presenter Clare Balding and broadcaster Paul Gambaccini.
The 'Hero of the Year' nominees are:
- John Amaechi - former professional NBA basketball star, spoke powerfully earlier this year about life as a closeted gay athlete sparking debate on both sides of the Atlantic on homophobia in sport.
- Sgt Julie Barnes-Frank - one of the first openly lesbian or gay police officers, founded Greater Manchester Police Lesbian and Gay Staff Affiliation in 1998 which now offers 24-hour advice and support to LGB police staff.
- Beth Ditto - lead singer of rock band The Gossip and outspoken advocate of gay equality, combines non-conformity with mainstream appeal, penning an advice column for The Guardian and nominated NME Sexiest Woman 2007.
- Antony Grey - veteran equality campaigner. As Secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society played a key role in securing the 1967 Sexual Offences Act to partly decriminalise homosexual acts.
- Lisa Power - veteran of human rights campaigns for over 25 years, first as a writer and activist for lesbian and gay rights and since the 1980s, in HIV and sexual health. The first person to speak at the UN on gay equality.
Personally, I'd go for Antony Grey but I doubt he's "fashionable" enough to get the nomination though probably the name that academics and long term campaigners are familiar with. The shortlist for 'Bigot of the Year' is:
- Archbishop of Birmingham - spoke out against our new goods and services protections for gay people, threatening to close welfare services and adoption agencies unless the Government agreed to sweeping exemptions.
- Jeremy Clarkson - Top Gear presenter and journalist, refused to apologise after being reprimanded by BBC bosses for derogatory gay jibes on primetime TV.
- Bishop of Hereford - withdrew a job offer to a youth worker because he was gay, after subjecting him to a series of humiliating personal questions.
- Patricia McKeever - secretive editor of the Catholic Truth website and newsletter. Co-ordinates a relentless campaign to 'name and shame' gay Catholic priests, and has been widely condemned for conducting a 'witch-hunt'.
- Ian Paisley Jnr - minister in the new Northern Ireland Executive. Said he was 'repulsed' by lesbian and gay people - has since refused to apologise.
Now this one is a tricky one but for me it's between the Archbishop of Birmingham and the Archbishop of Hereford. I'm just waiting for the acceptance speech..."Unfortunately the Archbishop can't be with us tonight as he is busy campaigning against homosexuality but here's a little video he recorded for us"...
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