A More Rewarding Award Than They Anticipated

Years ago, I volunteered with our local LGBTQIA+ community center as its executive assistant. As such, I helped assemble the center’s annual awards ceremony to honor volunteers and advocates within our community.

One year, the Board of Directors decided that, in addition to the certificates we created and printed out for honorees, we would also obtain official certificates of appreciation from the office of our state’s governor. It was a surprisingly easy process: log onto the governor’s website, find the section for ordering letters and commendations, fill out your contact information, give the name of the person being honored and why, and specify when you need the certificate.

As per the Board’s directions, I was purposely vague about the reason “why”, since our state’s government was (and remains) staunchly homophobic and transphobic. Under the justification section, I merely wrote, “In recognition of [Honoree]’s volunteer work and advocacy in the service of the people of [State].”

The certificate requests were accepted without question and sent to our offices in plenty of time for our event.

Fast forward to the night of the ceremony, where we presented a certificate to one of that year’s honorees: the leader of our state’s largest trans advocacy group. She came on stage and gave the certificate a bemused look as we handed it to her.

Honoree: “I’d like to know how you managed to get me a certificate of appreciation from the governor, considering I’m suing his a**!”

Indeed, her group was part of an ongoing lawsuit against the State over a series of civil rights violations against trans people. Everyone at the ceremony had a good, hearty laugh about putting one past the State for once. Maybe the folks at the State need to pay more attention to who gets a certificate with the governor’s name on it. Then again, let’s not give them any ideas…