Since 1993, the City of West Hollywood and its LGBTQ+ Commission (previously the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board) have presented Rainbow Key Awards to those who have made outstanding contributions to West Hollywood’s LGBTQ+ community. These contributions, by an individual or a group, may be in many forms, including the arts, community action, humanitarian action, sports, medicine, armed services, leadership potential, benefit to the global LGBTQ+ community, or other ways. For a complete list of past honorees, please click HERE.

Nominations Now Closed for the
2024 Rainbow Key Awards

The City of West Hollywood is gathering nominations for its 2024 Rainbow Key Awards. The City’s Rainbow Key Awards recognize people who have made outstanding contributions to the LGBTQ+ community.

Nomination forms are due by Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 11:59PM PST. Because this is a public nomination process, nomination forms submitted past this deadline cannot be considered.

Please note that individuals who are employed by the City of West Hollywood, and appointed officials currently serving or having served within the prior year on a City Advisory Board, Commission, or Task Force, cannot be considered for an award.

Full guidelines for the Rainbow Key Awards can be found here.

Nominees will be announced on this page and via press release at a future date this year. The Ceremony for the 2023 Rainbow Key Award winners will be held in 2024. 

For up-to-date news and events, follow the City of West Hollywood on social media @WeHoCity, sign up for news updates at www.weho.org/email, and visit the City’s calendar of meetings and events at www.weho.org/calendar.

For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Public Information Officer, Sheri A. Lunn, at (323) 848-6391 or slunn@weho.org

(Past Event Below)

Join us at the Rainbow Key Awards
on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 - 7PM
honoring the 2023 Rainbow Key Awardees

RSVP Here - This event is free and open to the public

  For those unable to attend,
the event will also be live streamed and recorded for viewing
on the City’s WeHoTV channel at www.youtube.com/wehotv

The City of West Hollywood and its LGBTQ+ Commission (formerly the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board) will host the City’s annual Rainbow Key Awards ceremony to recognize people and groups who have made outstanding contributions to the LGBTQ community.  

This year’s Rainbow Key Awards, which will honor the nominees selected in 2023, will be held in person on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 at 7 p.m. at the West Hollywood City Council Chambers, located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard. For those unable to attend, the event will also be live streamed and recorded for viewing on the City’s WeHoTV channel at www.youtube.com/wehotv.

Every year, the City’s LGBTQ+ Commission selects nominees from a public process. This year’s Rainbow Key Awards honorees, though held in 2024, will honor the 2023 nominees who were selected by the former LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. These honorees are:

• Bert Champagne, a volunteer in the Community who has worked for AIDS Walk LA for more than 32 years, served as a Board Member of the California Lesbian Project, and has volunteered for more than three decades at Project Angel Food. Bert currently is the Vice President of Sheryl Lee Ralph’s DIVA Foundation and has been part of DIVAS Simply Singing for more than three decades.
• Nahshon Dion is a multi-talented artist, author, producer, and host of TRANSBRATIONS, a YouTube show.
• Reverend Stephen Pieters, a gay pastor in West Hollywood who became well-known for his extensive AIDS activism after his own AIDS diagnosis in the early 1980s. His soon-to-be-published memoir, Love is Greater than AIDS: A Memoir of Survival, Healing, and Hope, will chronicle his life story. Sadly, Rev. Pieters passed away in 2023, and this award will be presented to his family posthumously.
• Steven Reigns, West Hollywood’s inaugural Poet Laureate, whose writings focus on the gay experience and people with HIV. He has taught poetry workshops across the country to LGBTQ youth groups and people living with HIV.
• Brody Schaffer, a young, 8-year-old dancer who inspires other children to be themselves by fiercely dancing on his social media channels and other dance projects, including TV ads and Nickelodeon programming.

We hope you can join us at this year's Rainbow Key Awards Ceremony - RSVP for this free event here.