The International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association will confer its prestigious Pinnacle Award for 2018 to Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, during its 35th Annual Global Convention in Toronto on May 9 through 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 travelers. Board chair Juan Julià, founder and president of Barcelona-based Axel Hotels, will make the presentation.
“I am incredibly proud to extend this IGLTA Honor to Prime Minister Trudeau. He presides over a country with some of the world's most advanced LGBTQ 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,” Julià said. “There is no doubt that LGBTQ travelers 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 LGBTQ community. In November 2017, he led the Canadian government in issuing a formal apology for a program of discrimination against LGBTQ 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 (Toronto, 2016.)
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 Honors, presented with support from Visit Philadelphia. For more information, please visit iglta.org/convention.