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Montreal, September 29, 2022 – At a special edition of the Fondation Émergence Awards, presented by the National Bank, the organization presented a second Laurent-McCutcheon Award in the same year for the very first time. The award was presented in person on September 28 to the Biden Administration’s Secretary of Transportation, Mr. Pete Buttigieg, during a ceremony in Montreal.
Fondation Émergence grants the Laurent-McCutcheon Award each year to an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights or to the fight against phobias related to the LGBTQ+ communities. As the first ever openly gay, Senate-confirmed individual to serve in the cabinet of the President of the United States, Mr. Pete Buttigieg achieves this objective perfectly.
“Mr. Buttigieg is a real role model for the LGBTQ+ communities. He has taken a stand for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States, and during the 2020 presidential election, he was open about his homosexuality. It was the first time a presidential candidate had done so. Fondation Émergence is sincerely honored that he is accepting the award,”said Patrick Desmarais, President of Fondation Émergence.
With his affirming gesture, the Biden Administration’s Secretary of Transportation has sent a strong message of hope to the LGBTQ+ communities here and abroad.
“I am truly humbled and honored to accept this award, especially as I have come to learn more about the remarkable life and profound legacy of Laurent McCutcheon,” U.S. Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg said. “Like all of us here, I am the beneficiary of a tradition of activism that reaches around the world and generations before I was born. And the results of those struggles, in our lifetime, border on the unbelievable—including the very fact that I’m able to stand before you today.”
About Fondation Émergence
Fondation Émergence works against homophobia and transphobia through various awareness programs such as the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, which takes place on May 17 and of which it is the initiator, ProAlly, for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the workplace, and Aging Gayfully, for the rights of LGBTQ+ seniors. In addition, the mission of the Chosen Family program is to reach out to LGBTQ+ caregivers of seniors to support them and educate them about existing services and help them develop knowledge that will be useful in their role.
