At the end of every calendar year, Qwear is humbled to honor our contributors and guests with awards in writing, photography, activism, style, and makeup.

This is our way of thanking people who went above and beyond, providing extraordinary work that assists Qwear Fashion in our mission to increase LGBTQIA+ quality of life through gender expression.

So this year we are going to feature people from 2019 and 2020, as we didn’t do awards those years and we want to give people the chance to be part of it.

best WRITING

Cal Jerrod

“To be Black and queer is the most heightened form of vulnerability.

To be Black and queer is to be an agent of divinity.

To be Black and queer is to be a futurist tied to the wisdom of the ancient past.”

Ebony Black

FEBRUARY,
synonymous with love
but let me try you —
oblige you,
a reality that just has to be,
an anomaly to some
but the truth
absolute

— Ebony Black Addresses White People in Poem “the Talk”

best Photography

Ruth Kivilahti

Jaypix Belmer

Best Activism

Yasmin Benoit

“After gaining a platform through my modeling, I decided to publicly come out as asexual in late 2017 with the goal of providing more representation for asexual people. Since then, I’ve came to realize that there are actually more asexual people out there than you would originally assume, but we largely go unseen. It’s our lack of visibility which contributes to prevalent and harmful stereotypes about asexual people.”

— This is What Asexual Looks like Part 3, Femme Edition

Lia

“I would say laws trying to prevent medical treatment are inherently terrible. It should not be up to anyone else other than the trans person. It’s not your decision, it’s my decision. Trans women/men not being allowed to be on the team of the gender they identify as is not okay. Let me be on the girl’s team as a trans female. If I was forced to be on the boy’s team I would be understandably outraged and I would try to be transferred to the girls and my parents would fight with me, cause they’re great. Some people might not be successful because their family doesn’t support them and because some people are just cruel. We all need to fight those people and help make the situation better with all sports organizations.”

— Sonny Oram and Lia on 10 Years of Qwear Beyond

Tatenda Ngwaru

“Most of the intersex people I’ve met in America are white. Intersex people are not celebrated in communities of color. We are not represented on their platforms, in the media or anywhere else.

“It hurt even more after I found out about intersex infants here who are forced to undergo unwanted surgeries that violate their bodies. When those children grow up, they will have felt robbed, as though their body, their voice, was stolen from them before they could even speak.

I knew then my job was not finished, that I had to speak out.”

Best Make-up

Vincy Chan

Plastique Pusséy (AKA Karl Jacobs)

Just JP

Kyle Linde

Best Outfits

TB McQueen

Kay WatTz

Best Hair

DELTA THE LEO

Daniela Chirinos-Aguilar

Congratulations to all the winners!

If you can, please support us in creating more content that improves lives. Support us for as low as $1 a month on Patreon.