Gloria Filipova, a participant in the first edition of the Initiative for Building the Future Generation of Civic Leaders of WCIF and Project Manager at Bilitis Foundation, together with Manuela Popova, Rainbow Hub and the LGBTI organization Action received a sub-award at the ceremony of the Annual Person of the Year Awards for their contribution to the development of the LGBTI community in Bulgaria and the protection of the rights of people from the community.
Gloria, Manuela and the Rainbow Hub have been honoured for their skilful use of media attention following the attack on the Hub by extreme nationalists to raise public awareness of hate crimes against LGBTI people and to advocate for the inclusion of these acts in the Criminal Code.
On its social channels on the award, Bilitis shared - "We are thrilled and proud to recognize our very own Gloria Filipova and Manuela Popova, and the entire Rainbow Hub team, who last night received the runner-up award at the annual Person of the Year 2021 ceremony for their outstanding contribution to the development of the LGBTI community in Bulgaria and the protection of the rights of people from the community! The award was accepted by the Executive Director of Bilitis, Lilia Dragoeva. We would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts all those who nominated Gogi, Mani and Rainbow Hub, as well as the jury and the whole team of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee for the recognition!".
"Person of the Year" is an initiative of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and is organized for the fourteenth consecutive year. Their aim is to give recognition and publicity to the honorees and their valiant human rights causes. They are awarded to an individual, collective or organization by a jury based on objective criteria. They are awarded on 10 December or a date close to it - World Human Rights Day. Here you can see all the nominees and winners.