The Advocate Wins Five Journalism Awards from NLGJA

The Advocate has won five NLGJA awards for Excellence in Journalism, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists announced today.

The honors include naming Lucas Grindley, editorial director and senior vice president for Here Media -- which owns The Advocate, Out magazine, PRIDE, and HereTV -- as winner of this year's Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBT Journalist of the Year. The award recognizes the body of work and contributions to LGBT media by an individual at an LGBT publication. Judges praised Grindley for his "smart and thoughtful treatment of chosen topics." The last winner of the award from The Advocate was Kerry Eleveld, then the magazine's political writer, in 2010.

Grindley finished in second place for the award last year, when it went to editor in chief Trish Bendix of AfterEllen. This year, second place goes to Erik Hall of OutSports. Journalist of the Year is awarded to BuzzFeed's Dominic Holden, a national LGBT beat reporter. Tim Teeman of The Daily Beast took second place.

NLGJA announced first-place wins in three other categories for The Advocate and one second-place finish. The Advocate's annual online event, Day in LGBT America, won for excellence in social media. And its series 40 Under 40: Intersectional Voices won for excellence in profile writing. The series this year adopted a new format and focused exclusively on up-and-coming LGBT people who are making a difference for equality and fairness broadly, outside the LGBT space.

Executive editor Neal Broverman won for excellence in opinion writing for his piece "I Met My Best Friend on Grindr." And managing editor Sunnivie Brydum and former correspondent Mitch Kellaway took second place in excellence in transgender coverage for their investigation "This Black Trans Man Is in Prison for Killing His Rapist."

The awards will be presented in September in Miami Beach, Fla,. during NLGJA's National Convention & 12th Annual LGBT Media Summit, which more than 350 people are expected to attend.