The Winners: One Colorado’s Ally Awards 2021

Honoring Community Members Supporting Colorado LGBTQ Community

Allyship is crucial in ensuring that underrepresented and underserved communities have their voices heard and power elevated, those with more privilege using it to uplift those without that same power in society. Honoring that sentiment and the important folks in our communities who help to lift each other up is an essential aim of the aptly named Ally Awards, One Colorado’s signature fundraising event, returning to Denver in November.

One Colorado uses its awardees to highlight their priorities and the direction Colorado, and its communities, should work toward. Executive Director Nadine Bridges says that they have begun to turn focus to the abundance of varying, complex issues the many different folks in the LGBTQ community face today.

“We’re not a monolith, right?” Bridges poses. “We are representative of every identity that’s out there, whether it’s religious-based, race-based, ethnicity-based, immigration status, ability/disability. And what you see here, in each one of these areas, are folks who are willing to demonstrate creating spaces where folks can be seen and heard and understand the powers of their voices, and that’s what we need to be successful in each one of these areas.”

Embracing the diversity of the community, and how our different lives and identities can be used to lift one another up, has also helped One Colorado to build upon the idea of what an ally is to begin with. The organization is just over 10 years old, and after highlighting people in the past outside of the community or who serve a limited portion of LGBTQ people, it was time to expand.

Deputy Director Garrett Royer says, “I think what we want to do with the next phase of the organization is, ‘How do we think about honoring the allies within the LGBTQ community who are being allies to more vulnerable members of that same community?’ And I think that’s part of what these awardees show and highlight the vision that One Colorado has for the next 10 years of our work.”

The event has the option for both the in-person, limited-capacity event (which will require proof of COVID-19 vaccine with the physical card or photo, verified vaccine passport, or a negative COVID-19 test result within 48 hours to enter), with the alternative option to tune in online. All participants will be able to bid on auction items, make donations, and see the honorees receive their awards.

This model is working in accordance with the ongoing pandemic and Delta variant, though Bridges says it has led to their consideration of how offering virtual options could increase accessibility, open up the event to more Colorado community members, and allow for flexibility in the future.

“You know, this is a way to bring them in,” Bridges says. “What does this look like, and can it be then, you know, an event somewhere that’s maybe not in Denver? … I think it opens up a lot of possibilities; there’s a silver lining to all of this, which is really thinking about how we can do things virtually and engage a larger swath of folks.”

Of course, the main event is the allies themselves. Here’s a peek at the four awardees this year:

Jeff S. Fard

Born and raised in Denver, Fard is a multimedia journalist, historian, and community organizer, focusing on topics like cultural identity and history, diversity, self-empowerment, community building, economic development, health disparities, and the uniting power of art. He began organizing nationally in 2000 to help reduce the disproportionate HIV and AIDS rates within the Black community.

“(Jeff) has been really doing work around equity empowerment, did a lot of work around HIV and AIDS in the African American community,” Bridges says. “I had been impressed with him; he did some conversations last year on his own channel regarding Black, transgender folks and conversations within the community, as well as within other Black, LGBT folks in community, and so I thought that—just once we discussed it, we all agreed that this would make the most sense to stick up with his work and what he’s doing and community.”

Dr. Jerrica Kirkley

Dr. Jerrica Kirkley is board certified in family medicine and works as the co-founder of gender-affirming care organization Plume, which centers the needs of trans individuals seeking hormone therapy. Kirkley helped to create a hormone-prescribing protocol and LGBTQ curriculum for residents, faculty, and staff, also helping to start two Colorado clinics dedicated to the care of trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people and offering gender-affirming training to organizations and practices around the state.

“(Kirkley’s work) is meeting gaps in the community that the existing healthcare infrastructure is just not satisfying right now,” Royers says. “We know that there are trans folks in Colorado who are just falling through, and through Jerrica’s work, she’s able to ensure that folks are able to get hormone replacement therapy, are able to get in contact with behavioral and health therapists, or other life-saving care that transgender and nonbinary Coloradans need … helping highlight, ‘What is the next state of health equity, and where do we as an organization still need to do advocacy work around healthcare and making sure that existing health infrastructure can be meeting the needs of all Coloradans?”

Ignacio Out & Equal Alliance

Ignacio Out & Equal Alliance is a Southwest Colorado, youth-focused-and-centered organization created to include every aspect of the LGBTQ community, aiming specifically to support, empower, educate, and advocare for LGBTQ and Two-Spirit community members, their families, and allies in the Southwest. 

“As One Colorado, we really want to be intentional about making sure that we weren’t just honoring folks within the Denver metro area,” Bridges says. “We really wanted to recognize that this group and Trennie Collins, the executive director, has really, really, really worked hard to ensure and uplift LGBTQ voices in Southern Colorado, especially on the reservation, and although some folks would argue, because (Collins) is a part of this community, is that allyship? But I think, when you’re talking about bringing voice to vulnerable communities, to speak and bringing that to the forefront, I think that very much speaks to what allyship is”

The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado

The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado was founded by a group of faith leaders from multiple backgrounds who were frustrated that their diverse faith voices weren’t represented in the public sphere, especially in media and politics. They aim to promote justice, religious liberty, and interfaith understanding through relationship-building in order to educate, advocate, and encourage social change, envisioning a society where all people, all faiths, from all traditions and backgrounds, are supported to live their lives authentically and freely.

One Colorado expands, “They seek to be a force for good in Colorado by standing up for rights and equality for all people. The Interfaith Alliance has continued to be the faith voice standing up for LGBTQ equality and women’s reproductive rights and justice. They’ve also been an outspoken voice for criminal justice reform at the state capitol and work to devise creative solutions to complex problems.”

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The One Colorado Ally Awards will take place November 12, online and in-person at the Four Seasons Hotel. Tickets are available for purchase at one-colorado.org/ally-awards.

*Photos provided by One Colorado