The Los Angeles Blade, HuffPost’s Lil Kalish and GALECA’s John Griffiths took home top awards at Press Pride Prom, a benefit and awards ceremony held at the Grand Central Air Terminal on July 26, 2025.
The Los Angeles Chapter of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, an organization that advocates for fair and accurate coverage of the LGBTQ+ community in the Southland while striving to foster community among LA’s queer and trans journalists, news media professionals and creatives, has announced the winners for three inaugural journalism awards for Southern California journalists and newsrooms who championed LGBTQ+ stories in 2024. The awards were presented at the 2025 Press Pride Prom, a benefit and awards ceremony presented by ABC7 and hosted by award-winning journalist Tracy Gilchrist.
The Troy Masters Legacy Award for Visionaries in Media, presented in collaboration with the Los Angeles Blade, honors a journalist or news media professional whose work reflects a dedication to the craft of journalism and a commitment to setting the stage for the next generation of LGBTQ+ industry leaders. The award is named in honor of Troy Masters, veteran queer journalist and former publisher of the Los Angeles Blade, who passed away last year. This year’s winner was John Griffiths, founder of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics and Dorian Awards. The other nominees included Mariah Castañeda, co-founder of LA Public Press and veteran journalist LZ Granderson, who currently serves as an OpEd columnist for the Los Angeles Times and an ABC News contributor.
The Excellence in LGBTQ+ Reporting Newsroom Award honors a news outlet whose coverage of the queer and trans community is well-informed, complex, varied and intersectional, with a track record of promoting the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists’ mission to advance fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ+ communities and issues. This year’s winner was the Los Angeles Blade. The other nominees were LAist and Variety.
The Queer Beat Award for Excellence in LGBTQ+ Reporting honors a single story or series that demonstrates care, skill and a commitment to fair and accurate reporting of LGBTQ+ themes, issues and people. This year’s winner was She Was Supposed to Be at Pulse Nightclub — And Club Q. Now She’s Fighting to Keep LGBTQ+ People Safe by Lil Kalish for HuffPost. The other nominees include A Night They Can’t Remember, at One of the Country’s Most Popular LGBTQ+ Bars by Kate Sosin and Steven Blum for The 19th and Banned Rainbows and ‘Forced Outing.’ Will Elections Reshape This Relentless School Board? by Jaweed Kaleem for the Los Angeles Times.
NLGJA Los Angeles’ external Awards Committee, which included the Trans Journalists Association’s co-Executive Director Tre’vell Anderson, Rotten Tomatoes’ Sophie Prime and former NLGJA LA Board President Ande Richards, selected the three winners.
The award winners were announced at Press Pride Prom, a benefit for the NLGJA LA Chapter and awards ceremony held on July 26 in Glendale at the historic Grand Central Air Terminal. The event, which had over 200 attendees, offered LGBTQ+ guests and others the opportunity to relive their high school prom as their authentic selves. The event was presented by ABC7.
For interviews with NLGJA LA organizers or any of the nominees, please contact LA@nlgja.org.
PLEASE CREDIT: Photos by MaKayla Hart or Louis White, courtesy of NLGJA Los Angeles
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PLEASE CREDIT: Courtesy of NLGJA Los Angeles