L.A. Times Receives Multiple Honors in NLGJA Excellence in Journalism Awards Contest
Among the top honors, Times staff writer Kevin Rector was named Journalist of the Year, which honors an LGBTQ+ journalist whose exceptional abilities, integrity and distinctive work brought honor to the profession within the last year. Rector joined The Times in 2020, first covering the LAPD, then legal affairs and is currently on the politics beat. In 2024, he wrote extensively on the presidential election, California's Senate race and President Trump's return to power, as well as covered breaking LGBTQ+ news and unique queer stories, including a piece on a San Francisco bookstore's efforts to ship banned queer books to conservative states for free.
Rector also spearheaded a major Times project he conceptualized called Our Queerest Century, which highlighted the vast and indelible contributions of LGBTQ+ people since the 1924 founding of the nation's first gay rights organization. Informed by a groundbreaking national poll, the package featured personal essays from queer writers, news analysis, original illustrations, a curated timeline of queer history, a portrait series and more. Times staff won several NLGJA awards for select stories and essays featured in the project, including columnist LZ Granderson's personal essay on the heroes of the AIDs epidemic.
'It was an honor and a privilege to work on Our Queerest Century with Kevin, LZ and our amazing team of writers, artists, editors, photographers, designers and others, all LGBTQ+ staff members and allies,' said Maria L. La Ganga, deputy managing editor for California and Metro. 'The project would never have happened without Kevin, who brings such talent, insight and passion to his work at the Los Angeles Times.'
Below is a complete list of The Times' winners and finalists:
Journalist of the YearWinner: Kevin Rector
Excellence in HIV/AIDS CoverageWinner: LZ Granderson, for his essay about the brave role LGBTQ+ people played in fighting the AIDS epidemic.
Excellence in NewswritingWinner: Kevin Rector, Hailey Branson-Potts, Matt Hamilton and Jaweed Kaleem, for a series of stories based on a national poll on LGBTQ+ issues, conducted for The Times by NORC at the University of Chicago with funding from the California Endowment.
Excellence in QPOC Coverage Winner: Erika D. Smith, contributor and former Times columnist, for her essay highlighting how queer people of color have led in many important political movements.
Excellence in Transgender Coverage AwardWinner: Former Times fellow Jireh Deng for their feature story 'T-Boy Wrestling is a sizzling showcase of trans masculinity — sweat, twerking and all.'
Best Packaging, Print or OnlineWinner: Current and former staffers Patrick Hruby, Mary Kate Metivier, Ross May, Allison Hong, Jim Cooke and Taylor Le for the design of the project – both the print special section and online presentation.
To learn more about the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and see the full list of award recipients, visit nlgja.org.
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