Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies announces 2013 award recipients Stephen Lewis, Dan Savage, and Bent On Change

TORONTO, ON — The Mark S. Bon­ham Cen­tre for Sex­u­al Diver­si­ty Stud­ies at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, is pleased to announce the recip­i­ents of its 2013 Bon­ham Cen­tre Awards, in recog­ni­tion of dis­tin­guished con­tri­bu­tion to the pub­lic under­stand­ing of sex­u­al diver­si­ty in Cana­da:

• Stephen Lewis, for­mer Cana­di­an politi­cian, diplo­mat, broad­cast­er, edu­ca­tor, and human­i­tar­i­an not­ed for his work in fight­ing HIV/Aids in African coun­tries;

• Dan Sav­age, acclaimed author, media pun­dit, and founder of the It Gets Bet­ter cam­paign to help pre­vent sui­cide among youth; and

• Bent on Change, a Gay-Straight Alliance at the Har­bord Col­le­giate Insti­tute in Toron­to, an inno­v­a­tive stu­dent activism group.

The awards will be pre­sent­ed at a gala din­ner this evening start­ing at 6:00 p.m. at One King West, Toron­to. Pre­sid­ing over the fes­tiv­i­ties as mas­ter of cer­e­monies is Tré Arm­strong, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, dancer, and judge on So You Think You Can Dance Cana­da. The awards will also fea­ture a musi­cal per­for­mance by Juno award-win­ning jazz artist Mol­ly John­son. The Hon­ourable Kath­leen Wynne, Pre­mier of Ontario, will be in atten­dance.

The Bon­ham Cen­tre Awards were estab­lished in 2007 to rec­og­nize an indi­vid­ual or group that has made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the advance­ment and edu­ca­tion of human rights issues sur­round­ing sex­u­al edu­ca­tion.

“Dan Sav­age, Stephen Lewis and Bent on Change cap­ture the very essence of the Bon­ham Cen­tre Award edu­cat­ing local­ly and glob­al­ly on issues of sex­u­al diver­si­ty” says Bren­da Coss­man, direc­tor of the Bon­ham Cen­tre and a pro­fes­sor in the Fac­ul­ty of Law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.

Past recip­i­ents include Oscar-win­ning screen­writer and LGBT rights activist Dustin Lance Black, Degras­si tele­vi­sion series co-cre­ator and exec­u­tive pro­duc­er Lin­da Schuyler, film­mak­er John Greyson, lawyer Bar­bara Find­lay, the Cana­di­an Union of Pub­lic Employ­ees (CUPE), and renowned sex­u­al edu­ca­tor and coun­sel­lor Sue Johan­son.

The Mark S. Bon­ham Cen­tre for Sex­u­al Diver­si­ty Stud­ies at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to offers an under­grad­u­ate pro­gram and a col­lab­o­ra­tive grad­u­ate pro­gram (MA and PhD), hosts aca­d­e­m­ic and com­mu­ni­ty events, and pro­motes research into sex­u­al­i­ty. Cre­at­ed in 1998, the Bon­ham Cen­tre and aca­d­e­m­ic pro­grams are the fore­most of their kind in the world, work­ing to forge con­nec­tions among fac­ul­ty, under­grad­u­ates, grad­u­ate stu­dents, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers inter­est­ed in ques­tions about how we under­stand sex­u­al diver­si­ty and sex­u­al prac­tis­es in soci­ety.

The gala is pre­sent­ed by TD Bank Finan­cial Group, with addi­tion­al spon­sor­ship from IBM Cana­da.

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For more infor­ma­tion vis­it: www.utoronto.ca/sexualdiversity or call 416–978-6276.

Media inquiries & accred­i­ta­tion:

Bryn Hen­dricks
bryn.hendricks@rogers.com
Tel: (416) 875‑2635