Public broadcaster SBS has been awarded Australia’s most gay-friendly brand announced at the Australian LGBTI Awards in Sydney on Friday night. SBS’s CEO Michael Ebeid is in the main photo holding the winning trophy.
See the full list of winners at the bottom of this article.
Other winners included: pioneer activist Peter De Waal, who took home the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award; Orange Is the New Blackw won the Public Award for Film, TV, & Web Series. While the Marketing Campaign Award went to Airbnb.
Hosted by SBS presenter Patrick Abboud, the evening saw an incredible who’s who of the LGBTI community descend on The Star for the special red carpet gala.
Attendees included Orange Is the New Black’s Yael Stone and Danielle Brooks, Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warior Princess)and comedian Jordan Raskopoulos.
“A huge congratulations to all of our fantastic award winners tonight,” said Australian LGBTI Awards director, Silke Bader. “These past months, it’s been amazing to finally starting to see some traction towards equality, opportunity and fair treatment for all. Such great strides would be impossible without their tireless contributions.”
Over 11,000 nominations were received across 16 categories including Celebrity of the Year, Sports Personality of the Year, Celebrity Ally, Brand and Marketing Campaign, Community Initiative/Charity and Inspirational Role Model.
There are two main groups to the awards, the Public Award Category and the Corporate Award Category. The Public Award categories are entirely decided by the public vote.
2018 winners:
Brand – SBS
Destination- Vienna
International celebrity – Conchita Wurst
Ally – Bindi Irwin
Film, TV & web series – Orange Is The New Black
Presenter – Joel Creasey
Communitive initiative – Sydney Swans
Hero – Kerryn Phelps
LGBTI celebrity – Magda Szubanski
Marketing campaign – Airbnb
Music artist – Beccy Cole
Sports personality – Casey Dellacqua
Politician – Alex Greenwich
Organisation – Brown-Forman
Corporate winners:
Diversity champion – Ross Wetherbee (CBA)
LGBTI employee network group – Australia Post
Inspirational role model – Alan Joyce (Qantas)
Lifetime achievement award – Peter De Waal
