Maine Women’s Lobby Annual Gender Justice Awards

Maine Women’s Lobby Annual Gender Justice Awards are given to those who go above and beyond in our community for gender justice, building a more liberatory future for all.

Bear cubs have family bonding time for around 17 months - about 6 times longer than most Maine babies. This year’s Legislative Champions are receiving the ‘Team Bear Cub’ Award for bringing all of the cuddly charm of a bear cub, but all of the fight of a mama bear to the campaign for Paid Family and Medical Leave for Maine. Together, Senator Daughtry, Representative Cloutier, and their chiefs of staff Jenna Howard and Katie Walsh worked in the Senate and House, and across the state for nearly three years to make the dream of paid leave a reality. We are honored to recognize them as a team as the inaugural Maine Women’s Lobby Legislative Champions.

All of our best work happens in collaboration with our partners. For several years, we have teamed up with our friends at Hardy Girls for our powerful Girls Day at the State House. This year, we took it to the next level, and expanded this program to double the size and add a high school sister program - and we did it side by side with the team at Hardy Girls. We are proud to be working together to build feminist youth empowerment opportunities for Mainer, and to honor Hardy Girls with this year’s Collaborative Champion Award.

When we work for gender justice, we want the Pie In the Sky: a Maine where everyone can live free from sexism, misogyny, and other oppressions, and where Mainers are free to make choices about their lives, their bodies, and their gender identity and expression that align with their own needs and experiences. This year’s Pie in the Sky Award Recipient is fighting for that Maine. Quinn Gormley has tirelessly worked to lead an organization and her community working for trans rights and dignity. She is a faithful partner and never fails to show up and contribute, and to ask for what is needed. In a time when trans lives are under attack across the country, under Quinn’s leadership Maine has passed four first-in-the-nation bills this session to protect and expand safety and freedoms for trans Mainers. We are honored to award her the inaugural Pie in the Sky Award.

We’re proud of how much important work we are able to move forward with a team of our size. But much of that work is made possible because of the energy, enthusiasm, and contributions of our member community. This year we want to give recognition to three special volunteers: whenever we needed them, Kim Simmons, Denise Tepler, and Barbara Cray were there. Each of them contributed in more ways than we can mention, but we especially lift up Kim, who is our partner in dreaming about education and outreach, and single handedly coordinated several hundred handwritten postcards to voters during the election. Denise has volunteered nearly every time we’ve asked, including going above and beyond to staff this event last year, and to wrangle a couple of hundred youth in our Girl's Day at the State House programming. And Barbara has contributed her incredible energy to documenting our history, past and present, through photos, videos, documentary work, and more. These three champions are such a valuable part of our team, and we are thrilled to honor their contributions.

2023 Awardees

AWARDS:

  • Legislative Champion: This award is given to legislators and legislative staff who work to create gender justice through policy change in the Maine legislature.

  • Collaborative Champion: This award is given to organizational partners who work to create gender justice through collaboration and network building.

  • Volunteer Champion: This award is given to an individual volunteer or community member helping us meet our mission.

  • Gender Justice Champion: This award is given to an individual or organization working to liberate gender, dismantling harmful gender norms and building new frameworks for a future free from sexism or misogyny.

CRITERIA:

Award recipients have shown a commitment to gender justice, who are changemakers going above and beyond to create more effective policies, partnerships, or opportunities for a more gender-equitable Maine.

Awardees have gone above and beyond, using their time, talent, creativity, and energy to contribute to our movement and help us meet our mission of a Maine free from misogyny and sexism.

NOMINATION & SELECTION:

Nominations may be made each year by Maine Women’s Lobby staff, Board members, and community members such as volunteers and advisory council members.

Nominations are reviewed by the Maine Women’s Lobby Board and Staff, and awardees are selected. Awardees will be notified in June of each year, and celebrated at our annual summer event.