The History Project, Boston’s LGBTQ archives, is pleased to announce John Ward as our 2021 HistoryMaker Awards honoree. Awarded since 2009, the HistoryMaker Awards recognize community members and organizations who make history every day. 

John Ward became Boston’s first openly gay male attorney in 1977. In 1978, he founded GLAD - Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (now GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders) after undercover police targeted, entrapped, and arrested gay patrons of the Boston Public Library. In another first, in 1995, Ward was the first openly gay male lawyer to argue in front of the United States Supreme Court in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston. Ward has fought for LGBTQ rights throughout his career and GLAD brought marriage equality to Massachusetts in 2004 and the United States in 2015.

The event will also honor Tre’Andre Valentine, the recipient of the Lavender Rhino Award. Named after one of the early symbols of the Gay Liberation movement, the Lavender Rhino Award is presented to emerging activists or organizations whose impact on the local LGBTQ community deserves recognition. 

Tre’Andre Valentine is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition and formerly managed community engagement with The Network/La Red. Valentine’s impact on Boston’s queer and trans community is unsurpassed, from his efforts to organize trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people to empower and advocate for themselves through building trans leadership, to his advocacy for equity and equal access at all levels and all intersections of identity, especially for trans and queer people of color.

“After an unprecedented year, I am so pleased that we’ll be gathering to honor John and Tre’Andre’s impact on LGBTQ rights in Boston and across the country,” says Executive Director Joan Ilacqua. “It’s especially important during this time to recognize work still necessary to ensure equal protections and rights for our community, especially those most marginalized among us impacted by systems of oppression and violence.”

The History Project will celebrate the 2021 honorees with an early evening reception at the St. Botolph Club, featuring cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, on November 4, 2021. Tickets, Host Committee, and Sponsorship opportunities are available via Eventbrite.