Each year, since its inception, Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage has made awards to people, groups and organisations which have benefited the local LGBT+ community.   As we have little money, the award is simply a framed certificate. Usually, three awards are made. Some years there has been an additional award to something which functioned in the past, but is no longer active. These latter are called the "Michael Raymond memorial awards" - see our "In Memoriam" section to find out about Michael Raymond.

The awards have been presented during February (LGBT+ History Month) at one of our exhibitions (for the first two years) and since then at our Celebration and Awards evening at Nottingham Council House. 

This evening is in two parts. For the first hour about 15 groups and organisations have tables on which they can display their information and interact with those attending. We usually have groups such as the LGBT+ sporting groups, Singing Proud, Notts LGBT+ Network, the Spencer Trust as well as representatives of statutory organisations like the NHS, the Council and the Police. The second half usually starts with a short speech from a guest of honour followed by the presentation of the awards. In recent times the evening has closed with a performance from Singing Proud.

To Ike Cowen, for his work in furthering gay rights in the 1960s and 1970s, for being a leading figure in local and national CHE and for helping to start the first gay club in the East Midlands - the Pavilion Club. The award was received on his behalf by Roger Hollier.

To The New Foresters, for 50 years as a lesbian and gay friendly bar

To the Laxton Holocaust Centre, for their furthering of the understanding of the persecution of LGBT people during the Holocaust. The award was received by Anna Larner

To Richard McCance for his work in furthering gay rights in the 1970s-1990s, for his involvement in CHE and National Friend, for being the driving force behind the production of Gay Nottingham, Metrogay and Outright.

To the Chameleon group for providing support and social facilities for trans people for over 25 years.



To the Lookout team, for publishing Lookout lesbian information newsletter continuously for 12 years.



To Nottingham Hyking Dykes for providing a valuable and much appreciated service for local lesbians for over 20 years.

To Breakout Gay Men's Group for providing excellent social facilities and support for local gay and bisexual men since 1996. (No photo available)

There were also two Michael Raymond Memorial Awards.

To Nottingham Lesbian Line, which provided information, advice and support for local lesbians for over 20 years until 2003. and to The Pavilion Club - the first gay club in the East Midlands.

To Healthy Gay Nottingham (formerly the GAi Project) for providing an outstanding service for local gay and bisexual men since 1994.



To LAFS (lesbians in Ashfield Friendship and Support) for providing a valuable and much appreciated service for local lesbians in and around the Mansfield/Ashfield area..



To Outburst Youth Group and Davina Daniels for providing an excellent social and support group for young LGB + T people.



To Nottingham Ball Bois football team for the success on the football field (winning both the GFSN league and cup) and hard work off the field: supporting the Justin Campaign against homophobia in football; raising money for worthy causes; raising awareness of testicular cancer; contributing to LGBT History Month events

In addition, there were two Michael Raymond Memorial Awards which went to:

The North Notts LGB Development Group and Part Two Club and its founder and manager Ross Smith.

Sapphist Writers,  a network of lesbian and bisexual women in the East Midlands who write or have a desire to write.



To the Nottingham(shire) Pride Committees, past and present.

LiNK Notts, the lesbian e-mail information service



In addition, the two Michael Raymond Memorial Awards went to:

The Nottingham Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) and Mushroom Bookshop

To Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Catherine Conchar. The Trust is an organisation which takes all aspects of diversity seriously and strives to work for all “protected characteristics”.

To WOW, the Worksop-based group providing invaluable support to LGBT young people in Bassetlaw.



To Nottingham Women's Centre, for their continued support for lesbians and trans women.



In addition, the two Michael Raymond Memorial Awards went to:

The Nottingham Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and Discern

To Tagadere, the HIV support service.

To the E-on LGBT Network



To Recreation, the trans social and support group



To "the Team which saved Pride" - 2014 Pride committee 



To Catherine Conchar, Head of Equality and Diversity at Notts Healthcare NHS Trust - the no. 1 Stonewall employer

To Eat Out Nottingham for providing a valuable non-scene social outlet and also for making many charitable donations



To Debbie Law at the New Foresters for maintaining a pub which has remained central to Nottingham’s LGBT social life for many years, for supporting several LGBT groups and for fundraising for many organisations



To Tim Franks in recognition of his work for both Nottingham’s LGBT Community and for PACE, the LGBT+ mental health charity



To Nottingham Lesbian and Gay Switchboard in recognition of 40 years of service to Nottinghamshire’s

LGBT Community



To Out in Education for their work in combatting homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in schools



To Sarah Lee and her team for helping to organise support services for LGBT young people in those part of the County where services were previously lacking. Photo (with Will Young) taken at a national event.



To Trans4me for providing essential support to young trans people in and around Nottingham

To Mel Jeffs for her ground-breaking work with Nottinghamshire Police to get misogyny treated as a hate crime

To the Centre Place Team for many years of support for LGBT young people in Bassetlaw and for the recent substantial expansion of those services.

Because of the blizzard, the Centre Place team were unable to travel in from Worksop.

To Rosey Donovan for continuous support for the LGBT community in many ways and over a long period

To Five Leaves Bookshop, an award winning independent bookshop which provides an LGBT friendly space, an excellent stock of LGBT literature and regularly hosts LGBT events

To Victoria Villasenor, Nicci Robinson and Global Words for organising both the unique annual Bold Strokes LGBT Book Festival and several collections of local LGBT memoirs

To Crystal Lucas for starting and continuing to organise Worksop Pride



After being prevented by a blizzard from receiving their award in 2018, the Centre Place team arrived safely in 2019

To Kairos, in recognition of the support they provide for lesbian asylum seekers



To Silver Pride, in recognition of the valuable social support it provides to older gay/bi men



To Arran Heys, for being the person who had the inspiration to set up the rainbow crossings in Hockley. As 2020' theme was "Prose, poetry and plays" we gave an award to Lord Byron, who made a surprise visit - seen here alongside Arran.

An additional award was given by Tania Thomas to Councillors Rachel and Roxanne Ellis, who assembled the huge Trans flag for Nottingham Pride.

LGBT History Month 2021 took place during Covid lockdown.  No time for a Celebration and awards evening.  Nevertheless we did decide to make some awards and this year there were four. Obviously there are no photos to be seen of awardees receiving their certificates.

To Notts Trans Hub and to their administrator Nat, for their vital support for Nottinghamshire’s Trans community and also for their work with Nottingham University Hospitals. They have provided “fantastic help, support and advice in developing LGBTQIA+ issues including Gender Diverse inclusion.”

To the Women’s Midweek Book group, for providing a valuable alternative social route over many years and which now continues in virtual form

To Nottingham Transinvasion, spearheaded by Tania Stevenson. If Covid hadn’t intervened, 2020 would have seen their 100th monthly social.

to QB Newsletter. This free newsletter has been running since 1998. At first it was put together by Healthy Gay Nottingham and later by Notts LGBT+ Network.

The 2021 awardees finally were presented with their awards on February 23rd 2022. The Celebration and awards evening took place both in person at Nottingham Council House and virtually on Zoom. 110 people attended at the Council House.

Below you can see Dr Nat Thorne (extreme left) for Notts Trans Hub, centre the award for the Midweek Book Group and far right Tania Stevenson for Nottingham Transinvasion.

The awards for 2022 were: 

• Nottingham Lions football team for their activities around challenging homophobia in football and their support for local charities  (top left)
• Craig Pennington, landlord of the Lord Roberts, for returning the pub to its status of an LGBT+ venue which provides a safe community space (top right)
• Catherine Kirk, for her work on diversity in education (bottom right)
• Troy Jenkinson, for producing the LGBT Nottingham Walking Tour as well as producing books for primary schools on same sex parenting (bottom left)
• David Edgley - a "lifetime achievement" award for, amongst other things, his work for Notts LGBT+ Network, QB newsletter and Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage.  David could not be there on the night. His award was to be present via Zoom - unfortunately the technology wasn't up to the task and the link failed!

The Awards for 2023 were:

• Singing Proud -Nottingham's LGBT choir. The choir also gave a brilliant performance to begin the formal part of the evening.
• Tina Nock (below, left) by Nat Thorne for her work as manager of the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health.
• Two members of the Nottingham Queer Arts Collective - seen on the right - were presented with their award by Councillor Angharad Roberts.
• Base 51, which amongst many other things, supports the Outburst youth group. Three member of Outburst are shown receiving the Award from the night's guest speaker, David Stewart.
• Illness prevented Terry Stewart, from Broadway, from receiving the award for the cinema.

Awards for 2024 were:

• Nadia Whittome MP for her support for LGBT+ people both locally and nationally.  Below, top middle with Shuguftah Quddoos, the Sheriff of Nottingham
• The Health Shop for the Shop’s longstanding support for LGBT+ People - always present at Pride, frequently setting up specific health events, providing a base for Silver Pride and, of course, distributing their "shag packs". Below top  right
• Badminton Social for running for nearly 20 years a group which allows people to enjoy socialising in an inclusive atmosphere over a game of badminton. Below bottom left

This year the event was a joint enterprise with Notts Pride and they also made awards. The awards were:

• The Pride Hosts, who help the running of Pride each year. Below bottom middle
• Tiger Enterprises which provided large quantities of materials for 2023's Pride. Below bottom right