Justin Trudeau is to receive the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association’s (IGLTA) highest honour, The Pinnacle Award 2018.
THE IGLTA will confer its prestigious Pinnacle Award for 2018 on the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, during its 35th Annual Global Convention in Toronto (May 9-12).
The Pinnacle Award recipient is selected by the Chair of the IGLTA board of directors and presented to an individual or business that has made the world a more welcoming place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travellers.
Board chair Juan Julià, founder and president of Barcelona-based Axel Hotels, will make the presentation.
He said: “I am incredibly proud to extend this IGLTA Honour to Prime Minister Trudeau. He presides over a country with some of the world’s most advanced LGBT+ rights, but instead of resting on those credentials, he makes it a personal point to vocally support our community and keep moving our issues forward.”
“There is no doubt that LGBT+ travellers are respected and embraced in Canada, and that welcoming message is amplified every day through his actions as prime minister.”
Trudeau’s time in office has carried consistent messages of support for the LGBT+ communities. In November 2017, he led the Canadian government in issuing a formal apology for a program of discrimination against LGBT+ Canadians (1962-1996) that was accompanied by US$85 million in reparations; this emotional address to Parliament elevated the global conversation on human rights. Trudeau also was the first Canadian Prime Minister to march in a Pride Parade in Toronto, in 2016.
Right Honourable Justin Trudeau
In an interview with UK’s Attitude magazine, Trudeau said: “The LGBT+ community has become emblematic of the fight for human rights. The fact that so many people have gone for so long feeling that they had to be ashamed or hide about their core identity to fit into society is a lesson for everyone to push against.”
The Pinnacle Award is part of this year’s IGLTA Honours, presented with support from Visit Philadelphia.
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