Watch The 2024 Audre Lorde Wisdom Awards!
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Our Honorees
Dee Dee Chamblee
DeeDee Ngozi Chamblee is the executive director and founder of La Gender Inc., a non-profit organization led by African-American trans women that empowers and lifts the spirits of transgender women of color in the metro Atlanta area. Ms. Chamblee is a survivor and advocate, living with HIV/AIDS for 25 years. Ms. Chamblee founded La Gender in 2001 to address the unique needs of the transgender community surrounding issues such as HIV/AIDS, homelessness, incarceration, mental health wellness, discrimination, and hate crime violence. She was honored by President Barack Obama with a Champions of Change Award.
Angela Hervey
Angela Harvey is a filmmaker, writer, director, counselor, and social changemaker who uses her platform to share stories about marginalized communities. Her stories focus on race, sexuality, and resilience. She has hosted conversations on these topics, leading motivational workshops, presentations, and retreats. Harvey is passionate about empowering the Black LGBTQ+ community.
Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy
Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy is a leader, activist, pastor, religious expert, and writer. She has worked tirelessly to support the Black LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV/AIDS. As a teenager, she was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Black Catholics in Action. Ultimately, she left the Catholic Church due to their homophobia and lack of a commitment to racial justice. In 1978, she became a founding member of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays (NCBLG). Then, in 1981, she became an ordained minister in the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). Later that year, in Harlem, NY, she founded the United States’ first Christian and MCC congregation led by Black openly LGBTQ+ people. Rev. Dr. McCoy has provided spiritual support and guidance for many people within the queer community.
Bishop Toniya Rawls
Bishop Tonyia Rawls is a social justice activist and LGBTQ+ religious leader. She is an ordained minister in the Baptist Church and was one of the first women to become a Bishop in the Unity Fellowship Church. In 2009, she founded a nonprofit organization called the Freedom Center for Social Justice. Their mission is to promote racial justice, economic empowerment, and anti-discrimination. They advocate for the Black LGBTQ+ community and aim to liberate historically marginalized people from systems of oppression. Bishop Rawls is also co-founder of the Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice, the National Trans Religious Cohort and The Black Mountain School of Theology and Community. Her commitment to advocacy is striking and she has created many affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ people in the church.
Sharon Lettman-Hicks
In 2009, Sharon Lettman-Hicks became the Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) where she advanced civil rights for Black LGBTQ+ and same-gender loving communities. In 2014, she was appointed to President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. In 2017, Lettman-Hicks became the CEO and Board Chair of NBJC where she worked in this position for seven years. In 2022, she served on the LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee for Leon County Schools in Tallahassee, Florida.