SARASOTA – It’s been described as “the Academy Awards of Sarasota’s LGBTQ community.” The OUT Awards recognize the people and places that positively impacts us.
“Once I started sarasotaOUT[.com] the very first year I was like well this is my chance to start my own awards, Joshua Beadle. “I still want to be able to able to thank the people that are out there doing the work in the community.”
Founder of sarasotaOUT.com Joshua Beadle says he wanted to create a consistent awards ceremony. One that honors those hand picked by the LGBTQ community of SRQ.
“After the first years and just walking through downtown and seeing the award display them proudly in their establishment felt good,” said Beadle.
Whether Beadle is recognizing bars, restaurants, or non-profits he wanted to tell those who are making an impact in their community that their work isn’t going unnoticed. And neither did Beadles.
“Through this awards – through acknowledging different aspects of LBGTQ people, and what they do and what how they communicate through the community,” said Beneva Frutiville.
And the OUT! Awards wouldn’t be the same without this year’s host Beneva Fruitville. A past winner of the ceremonies prestigious prize the ICON Award. She says the growth of the awards represents the growth of the L-G-B-T-Q community across the Suncoast.
Even the awards categories have grown in size. From the original 30 categories to the now more than 50 awards given out. With even us here at SNN being nominated for favorite media source.
“It’s just a celebration of the hard work that they’ve been putting in that entire year.” said Beadle. “People don’t do the work to get the award, but it’s really nice to get an award for the work that they do already.”
The OUT! Awards are Sunday starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are sold out, but Beadle says the program will be streamed online