GLAAD is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2017 Rising Stars Grants at the GLAAD Gala San Francisco.

The GLAAD Rising Stars program empowers and invests in the next generation of LGBTQ change makers, whose advocacy is changing their local communities and the culture at large. Grants are awarded annually to LGBTQ youth and support initiatives that champion intersectional LGBTQ issues, including racial justice, immigration rights, trans equality, and more.

The Rising Stars Grant recipients at the GLAAD Gala San Francisco, presented by Target, Turner, and Barilla, will be honored for their work that uses social media, digital media, or technology to enhance LGBTQ experiences online and in their communities.

Recipients will be recognized at the Rising Stars Luncheon taking place at the InterContinental in San Francisco on September 8^th, 2017.

The Rising Stars Luncheon will be hosted by YouTuber Kat Blaque, and will feature presenters activist Blair Imani, actor Tommy Dorfman, YouTuber Riley Jay Dennis, and DJ Zeke Thomas, with special guests GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, and poet Royce Mann, all of whom are notable for their contributions to LGBTQ visibility and fair representation in the media.

Recipients of GLAAD Rising Stars Grants will also attend the GLAAD Gala San Francisco, which honors leaders in the tech and digital media industry whose work positively affect LGBTQ communities.

Congratulations to the recipients!

2017 Rising Stars Grant recipients

Lindsay Amer

Barilla Cultivation Grant

Lindsay Amer is a queer activist, artist, storyteller, and educator based in New York City. They create and host Queer Kid Stuff, an LGBTQ+ educational web series for all ages on YouTube. Lindsay strongly believes that queer-inclusive media representation for kids helps create a kinder and more equal future. As a Rising Stars Grant Recipient, they will produce a third season of Queer Kid Stuff, focusing on age-appropriate queer-inclusive sex education and introducing new vocabulary and concepts to the series, like “non-binary,” and how to think about gender and sexuality as spectrums.

Dani Marrero

Target Trailblazer Grant

Dani Marrero Hi is a Mexican immigrant raised in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. She is the creator of Neta, an online multimedia platform for citizen journalism to amplify the voices of border residents on social and political issues. As a Rising Stars Grant recipient, Dani will continue working with the dedicated team of storytellers in the Rio Grande Valley to keep creating positive and authentic media representation for border residents.

Prince Shakur

Turner Visionary Grant

Prince Shakur is a queer Jamaican American artist born and raised in Cleveland, OH, and holds a degree in Creative Writing from Ohio University. After the shooting death of Michael Brown, he dove headfirst into activism, including visiting Ferguson, marching for NUIT DEBOUT in Paris and protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock, ND. The Rising Stars Grant will support his work as a freelance writer for publications like Teen Vogue, and his project Two Woke Minds, a travel series highlighting social issues abroad and in the U.S.