Annual LGBTQIA+ City Award

The Annie-Brouwer Korf Award was the first LHBTIQA+ city award in the Netherlands. In 2007, then mayor Annie Brouwer-Korf was the first to receive the award at the then brand new Midzomergracht Festival. Since then, the mayor of Utrecht has awarded the award annually to people and organizations that are particularly committed to LGBTQIA+ in the city. The festive ceremony is an important event for the Utrecht queer community and in recent years has often taken place in music complex Tivoli-Vredenburg.

Utrecht

The award is named after Annie Brouwer-Korf (1946 – 2017). She was mayor of Utrecht from 1999 to 2008 and has always made a strong case for the emancipation and acceptance of LGBTQIA+. The award consists of a trophy, a brooch and a cash prize of € 5,000. Anyone can nominate individuals or organizations. An independent jury selects three nominees from the entries. In 2022, for example, there were three event organizations, Queer Film Festival Utrecht, Utrecht Pride and What You See Festival, with Utrecht Pride winning. The Queer Film Festival Utrecht was the winner a year later.

National awards

The Annie Brouwer-Korf award was the first, but is nowadays not the only queer award in the Netherlands. Since 2009, the Netherlands has had a national LGBTIQ+ award. The Dutch government then instituted the biennial Jos Brink Prize, named after the well-known artist, activist and pastor. Winners included police officer Ellie Lust (2017) and child psychiatrist Glenn Helberg (2021).

In addition, since 1991 COC Netherlands has been irregularly awarding the Bob Angelo award (medal or certificate) to people who are of great importance to the queer movement. For example, photographer Erwin Olaf (2011) and performer André van Duijn (2017) received this medal, as did the Utrecht scientists Rob Tielman (1998) and Judith Schuyf (2015). Martin Oortwijn of the refugee project of COC Midden-Nederland received the certificate in 2016.

Between 2003 and 2012, there was also a triennial prize for the most gay-friendly municipality, the Lantern Prize, awarded by Movisie. Utrecht was the winner in 2006.

Other city awards

Utrecht was the first to initiate a LGBTQIA+ city award, but it is no longer the only one. In 2009, The Hague started its prize, named after football referee John Blankenstein. In 2015, Schiedam started with the Jilles Bruggeman Medal. The Utrecht artist Claudia de Breij received this medal in 2020. Rotterdam followed in 2022 with the Joanne Ellenkamp Award, named after the Rotterdam lesbian politician and director who died in this year.

For the sake of completeness, it is worth mentioning that COC regio Nijmegen has been awarding the Burgemeester Dales Prize since 1996. However, it focuses on inclusion in a broad sense and not specifically on LGBTQIA+.

Foreign awards

Outside our country there are many LGBTIQ+ awards. There are too many to mention, so here are just a few examples. The best known is the shower of so-called GLAAD media awards in the US, the queer version of the Oscars. The first were awarded in 1990. Since 1998 there has also been a prize for scientists, the Brudner Prize of Yale University in the US. Germany has had a prize for media companies since 1998, the Felix Rexhausen Preis, awarded by the German Rainbow Journalists Association. The United Kingdom has had the British LGBT Awards since 2015 as a successor to previous Stonewall Awards.

Evert van der Veen

Award winners

Mayor Annie Brouwer-Korf is the first to receive the award named after her. Then followed:

2008: scientist and activist Judith Schuyf

2009:  Marischka Verbeek from bookstore Savannah Bay

2010: Jacques Drabbe, honorary member of COC Midden-Nederland

2011: Youth organisation PANN

2012: Feibe Zweers, owner of café Body Talk

2013: gay men’s choir Cantotori del Duomo

2014: working group for refugees Cocktail, part of COC-Midden-Nederland

2015: Utrecht Gender Divers

2016: Theatre AanZ

2017: documentary Breaking Borders by Barbara Vollebregt and Fatima Warsame

2018: Jan Scheepstra (posthumous) of gay disco De Roze Wolk (The Pink Cloud)

2019: Games[4diversity] stimulates diversity in games, founder Menno van Pelt-Deens.

2020: former Utrecht mayor Jan van Zanen

2021: Elias van Mourik with the rainbow cycle path at the Science Park. This year Hans Kuperus, former Chief Cabinet of the municipality, received a one-time Liftetime Award.

2022: Utrecht Pride of initiator Robbert Kalff

2023: Queer Film Festival Utrecht of initiator Joost de Vries

2024: Utrecht Ballroom Scene of initiator Andre Damian

Up-to-date information about the Annie Brouwer-Korf Award through the Utrecht Queer Culture Festival.