27th Sexual Freedom Awards Finalists
The 27th Sexual Freedom Awards – honouring practitioners, performers and activists who promote sexually positive attitudes – took place in London, UK on Thursday 4th May, 2023. These uniquely independent and inclusive international Awards – with their famous, hand-carved, ' golden flying cock' trophy – are presented in nine categories; Activist, Ally, Event, Performer, Pioneer, Publicist, Sex Worker and Somatic Sexologist of the Year; plus Stripper of the Year who showcase their live acts during the Awards ceremony.
Below are the Finalists. A long-list for each Award category is compiled from nominations from the public and a short-list of 3 Finalists (usually) per category is selected by a panel of expert judges who announce winners on the night. We salute all nominees & Finalists!
The Finalists remain featured here as a tribute their outstanding contributions to the myriad worlds of sexual freedom and expression.
Activist of the Year
Forest Gayte Pride CIC
Forest Gayte Pride CIC is a non-profit community interest company in East London that was founded in 2017 by LGBTQ+ activists and advocates in the vibrant borough of Newham. Caron Harrison and Rob DesRoches, two of the original founders, have recently been joined by Dan Cox and Stephen Woodward and together create safe spaces and events for the queer community while providing education for the greater community at large.
Since its establishment, Forest Gayte Pride has been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ activism in the region. The organisation is committed to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusivity through various initiatives and events. Events include a march, live performances, workshops, and other activities that promote Queer rights and visibility.
Forest Gayte Pride engages in a variety of community outreach programs, such as workshops, seminars, and awareness campaigns, to promote queer inclusivity and education. The organisation also provides support and resources to LGBTQ+ individuals in need, including those who may face discrimination or prejudice based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
With their commitment to advocacy, education, and community engagement, Forest Gayte Pride continues to make a positive impact on the LGBTQ+ community in East London and beyond. Their mandate is to educate a society and promote a community that is inclusive, accepting, and supportive of all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. www.ForestgaytePride.com
Hookers Against Hardship WINNER!
Hookers Against Hardship is a grassroots campaign of sex worker-led organisations, aiming to raise awareness of the specific experiences of sex workers during, and because of, the cost of living crisis. We’re working to try to alleviate sex workers’ financial hardship in the current crisis; and to lobby our elected politicians to combat the poverty, criminalisation, and danger faced by sex workers. Since the campaign was launched in October 2022, it has raised over £6,000 to give to sex workers in crisis; the campaign’s petition calling for the full decriminalisation of sex work has reached nearly 26,000 signatures; and a number of MPs have tweeted their support.
The campaign has had national TV coverage on the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4; and press coverage from the Independent, the Financial Times, Dazed, Gal-dem, Cosmopolitan, Metro, Vice, the Daily Mirror, Mashable, MyLondon, Glasgow World, Shado Mago, and the Bristol Post. We produced five campaign videos platforming the voices of sex workers and held a campaign event bringing together speakers from the anti-trafficking, migrants’ rights, trans rights and VAWG sectors.
Hookers Against Hardship continues to raise awareness of sex workers’ experiences and to demand that the government does more to support sex workers. https://decrimnow.org.uk/hookers-against-hardship/
Lou Featherstone
Activist, positivity rebel and midlife-mindset-shifter Lou Featherstone, AKA Lu in Luland is aging disgracefully, and she’s on a mission to champion causes that help women of all ages be completely confident in themselves.
Menopause, abortion, masturbation...no topic is taboo... and if it is then Lou will work to shatter it!
With a big influence on Instagram, she is embracing middle age with vigor and using her platform to inspire women to come out of their comfort zones and rediscover their confidence and have some fun.
Lou and her vintage Bluebird bus, Susie, have just toured across the US, on the Self Love Revolution Tour, encouraging people to embrace their sexy confident selves, as well as busting myths on midlife and menopause along the way.
Lou now resides in the UK, where she takes part in public speeches, activist events, webinars, rallies and much more!
Lou gives a voice to those that feel they don’t have one; spreading- sex positivity, as well as busting myths on midlife and menopause, along the way.
The Self Love Revolution Tour was a grassroots fiesta of fun where zero f*cks are given. From drag shows to pole dancing, from radio shows to keynote speeches, from comedy shows to rally leading, Lou has been all over the USA and Europe showing that menopause and aging aren't all doom and gloom!
Insta: @luinluland : : luinluland.com
Ally of the Year
Credit: Rebecca Need-Menear
Hannah Witton
Hannah Witton is an award-winning online creator and author, with her videos attracting 100 million views and over 700k subscribers to her official YouTube channel.
She is regarded as one of the UK’s leading voices covering a range of topics including sex, relationships, feminism, body image, gender, sexuality, and parenting. Hannah is also known for sharing her journey with having an ostomy and she has appeared on ITV, Lorraine.
‘Doing It Podcast’ is Hannah’s successful podcast series which has over 2 million downloads to date. New episodes are every Wednesday and Hannah talks about all things sex, relationships, dating, bodies, and taboo topics with her chosen guests. She proudly works as an ambassador for Brook, the UK’s leading sexual health and wellbeing charity for young people. She was shortlisted for Young Person of the Year at FPA’s UK Sexual Health Awards. During 2019 Hannah made The Sunday Times Top 100 Influencer List.
Hannah’s debut internationally selling book, ‘Doing It’ sold over 20,000 copies in its first year alone. ‘Doing It’ book candidly explores topics such as masturbation and puberty, slut shaming and consent, as well as, how to maintain healthy relationships in a digital age. Hannah’s second book ‘The Hormone Diaries’ comes off the back of her successful YouTube series of the same name.
Hannah’s awards include ‘Best Sex and Relationships Influencer’ at the Cosmopolitan Influencer Awards and named Top 100 in ‘The Sunday Times Influencers List’.
Hannah’s knowledge and optimistic style sees her regularly get asked to contribute to TV and Radio. With a combined social media following of over one million; Hannah’s take on young people’s issues has seen her work with global brands MTV, Durex and Always, to name a few.
Youtube: @hannahwitton : : Insta: @hannahwitton
Silva Neves WINNER!
Silva Neves is an accredited psychosexual and relationship psychotherapist, and a trauma psychotherapist. He is a Pink Therapy Clinical Associate. Silva is based in Central London, UK.
Silva specialises in working with Gender, Sex, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD), sexual trauma and compulsive sexual behaviours. He is an accredited clinical supervisor offering ongoing and ad-hoc supervision for mental health professionals and a Course Director for CICS (Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology).
Silva is a member of the editorial board for the leading international journal Sex and Relationship Therapy.
Silva is the author of two books: Compulsive Sexual Behaviours, A Psycho-Sexual Treatment Guide for Clinicians (Routledge), Sexology: The Basics (Routledge), and he co-edited two textbooks with Dominic Davies: Erotically Queer (Routledge) and Relationally Queer (Routledge). He contributed a chapter in Queering Gestalt Therapy (Routledge) and co-authored two chapters with Dominic Davies in The SAGE Handbook of Counselling & Psychotherapy.
Silva is often asked for contributions in the media on various sex and relationship topics. He is particularly passionate in promoting sex-positivity while challenging harmful myths. He also promotes sex workers’ rights and erotic diversity. Silva speaks internationally at conferences and other events. : : Insta: @silvanevespsychotherapy : : Twitter: @SilvaNeves3 : : Facebook: Silva Neves – Psychotherapy : : TikTok: @queertherapistuk : : www.silvaneves.co.uk : : www.sexpositivityuk.com
Event of the Year
Pinky Promise
Pinky Promise is a collective of sensual deviants who create live-action hedonistic extravaganzas with a heart. From our pleasure parties & intimate workshops to our cabaret shows and festival stages, we continiously strive to create beautiful sensual experiences for folks to explore & heal their sexuality in playful ways. We believe all of us deserve to have the freedom, space, and permission to discover and be the fullest expression of ourselves, beyond the limitations and prejudices of existing societal structures. By sharing our knowledge, skills, and perspectives, we open ourselves up to a richer experience of life, ourselves, and each other. Our platform aims to empower people with the tools to be exploratory with their sexuality, stronger with their boundaries and more nurturing with their connections.
Insta: @pinkypromise.world : : FB: pinkypromiseworld : : pinkypromiseland.co.uk
Pole Dance Stripper Movement, PDSM
Pole Dance Stripper Movement was founded by Gemma Rose and ran their first live event this year: The PDSM Competition.
PDSM is a direct response to combat the stigma, othering, erasure and glamourisation of strippers in the pole industry. They provide a sex worker-centric platform, uniting the overlapping sex work and pole dance communities.
Other than providing a fair system to rival any civilian-led effort, PDSM created the first and most SW-centric pole competition. With a libertine flare, competitors could strip naked. 100% of paid team members were SWers or family of SWers. The judging panel were all strippers. Performers spoke about SW politics. They offered subsidised applications to low-income SWers; all of which got accepted. They offered one £70 grant to a low-income SWer finalist. We raised £800 for Sex Workers United; a union fighting for worker's rights in the sex industry. They hired a strip club out of hours, so they covered most of the dancer's house fees for that night and encouraged their spectators to support the local dancers post-event, for which they provided the correct etiquette.
This event has set a precedent for how the pole world should be more inclusive of Sex Workers.
Social media: @pdsmuk : : Poledancestrippermovement.co.uk
Credit: Imogen Cleverley @imogenmayc
Sex and Rage! WINNER!
SEX AND RAGE! is an organisation led by sex workers, educators and activists. They resist stigma and shame as the main causes of sexual and gender-based violence, and aim to make social change through sex education. Their work explores the intersections between sex workers rights and those of women, sexual minorities and marginalised communities, and offerevents and workshops that engage in dialogue, creative and embodied practices as a way to empowering individuals and communities living in oppressive systems.
In the last few years, Sex and Rage have created events that have ranged from kink and consent workshops to erotic films screenings and poetry readings. Their club nights centre oppressed sexualities and underground cultures. Their latest venture has been our Lesbian Strip Night, but they’re more than just a club night - they’re challenging the serious lack of representation of lesbian club nights by curating events that are by and for their community. At the same time, they’re advocating for change within the sex entertainment industry - they prioritise the safety and well-being of the dancers, and challenge the idea that the only people who want to participate as consumers of sexual entertainment are, well, men.
Insta: @xrage0001 : : Twitter: @sexandrageUK : : sexandrage.com
Performer of the Year
Chao-Ying Rao (Femme Castratrice) WINNER!
Chao-Ying Rao (performs under Femme Castratrice) is an East Asian visual and performance artist whose practice involves negotiating complexities around objectification and narcissism, often using humour as a tool to disarm and charm the viewer.
She is interested in the absurdity of desire, excessive consumption, racial and bodily fetishisation, and abject femininity.
Her background in dance comes from years of working as a stripper in Edinburgh and London.
Femme Castratrice is inspired by vintage playboy centrefolds and misogynistic pop culture truisms. Working with Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Creed’s monstrous feminine, her performances play with that very fine line between attraction and repulsion.
Marie Sauvage
Marie Sauvage began her rope practice in 2017 when she met Shibari master Hajime Kinoko at his art installation at Burning Man. He invited her to move to Tokyo to work with him at his studio, and since then, she has traveled alongside Kinoko and on her own, giving performances and installing gallery exhibits worldwide..
Marie Sauvage is a female rigger who publicly performs Shibari, a Japanese art form that has been predominantly practiced by men. Her feminine approach has given the art of tying a fresh perspective, making rope feel more approachable to a wider audience, especially a female audience. Her tying has subverted the cultural norms around rope, garnering the curiosity of people beyond the world of fetishism.
Insta: @marie.sauvage : : mariesauvage.com
Polly Amorous
The self proclaimed Sober Songbird of Splott, Polly is undoubtedly one of the hottest names in Drag to come out of Wales in recent years. Based in the Welsh capital of Cardiff, Polly is a pioneer of contemporary Drag; she is at the helm of Wales’ largest queer cabaret “Hey Mary,” and in 2022 she headlined Pride Cymru alongside Melanie C and Bimini.
Polly has committed herself to her scene in Cardiff, using her platform and privilege to showcase underrepresented voices in a city populated by white cis-male drag, to ensure her show lineups prioritise artists from the transgender, cis-female and non-binary communities and those within the global majority.
Polly is also known in the theatre circuit, starring in two sold out Christmas shows at Wales Millennium Centre - the national centre for arts in Wales - XXXmas Carol and The Lion The B!tch and The Wardrobe (no bonus points for guessing the source material.) The success of these shows inspired an influx of queer theatre within the Welsh capital. Polly has been proudly sober for two years, and uses Drag as a platform to discuss the challenges of mental health and substance abuse within the LGBTQ+ community. Social media : : @ThePollyAmorous
Pioneer of the Year
Araxie Boyadjian
Araxie is leading LVNDR’s voice, as co-founder and Marketing Director, driving creative direction, establishing key partnerships, and fostering a movement for the queer community, ensuring every voice is heard and reflected. Prior to LVNDR, she worked on Karla Otto's online strategy then went on to build and managed the digital team for one of MENA’s leading luxury department stores launching their global e-commerce website. Having experienced and witnessed the injustices faced by the LGBTQ+ community and underrepresented groups, she is aiming to transform the healthcare sector, expanding the reach of accessible sexual care to those who need it the most.
LVNDR exists to make quality sexual healthcare more accessible to the LGBTQ+ community. Sexual heath by queer people, for queer people, working alongside the NHS to provide remote specialised LGBTQ+ clinical support and at home PrEP monitoring and diagnostics.
We are a venture-backed company with a big dream to create specialised sexual health and wellness services at scale. No matter where you are, you deserve to receive care that meets your needs
LVNDR’s goal is to be a single touchpoint for queer care: from medication and consultations, to tips and tools designed specifically for the LGBTQ+ community; we’ll be ready to answer all of your questions and concerns along the way.
Insta: @Arxs.ie & @lvndrhealth : : www.lvndr.com
danni spooner
danni spooner (they/them) is a trans neurodivergent performer, model, go-go dancer, nightlife organiser, influencer and founder/editor of trans+ magazine PlayThey. they openly document their trans experience online and are well embedded within the community to help share resources and offer support.
their magazine PlayThey is entirely trans+ focused and pays everyone involved - regardless of people’s individual experience (offering a space and platform to try writing, modelling, photographing, etc. to the community). it is successfully stocked and sold at Common Press.
they work with healthcare organisations such as CoppaFeel! and LVNDR on social media and developing important conversations regarding trans/queer people. at nighttime you can find them shaking their ass at Feel It, Dalston Superstore, XOYO and various other queer events. They’ve just been made guest curator (for month of may) for BodySwap - Superstores trans* centred and fundraising wednesday night. and in daylight you can find their face all over Sephoras stores!
Insta: @dannisp00ner
Monique Huysamen WINNER!
Monique is a sex researcher, with a passion for using research to show that sex and intimate relationships is a social justice issue. Part of this is fighting for the importance of recognising people with disabilities as sexual citizens like everyone else. She is the lead researcher on the SAAIL: Supporting Autistic Adults’ Intimate Lives Project which looks at how adult social care in England can be better at recognising and supporting autistic people around sex and relationships. Much of Monique’s research has been about the value of sexual services. She researches how paid sexual encounters with trained professionals can provide safe and non-judgemental environments for people to explore and express their sexualities, needs and preferences. Her research shows how this experience can make all the difference for some people. She works to reduce the stigma associated with paying for sexual services through her research and is fighting for the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa where she is originally from.
Twitter: @monique_huy @autlives : : www.autlives.com
Publicist of the Year
Emma-Louise Boynton WINNER!
Emma-Louise Boynton is a writer, producer, presenter and the creator and host of Sex Talks, the media platform dedicated to engendering more honest and open conversations around sex, gender and the future of intimacy.
Sex Talks was born from Emma-Louise’s own experience doing sex therapy, which she found transformative. So transformative, in fact, she became determined to create a platform that could democratise access to the sort of conversations and learnings she’d had in the sex therapy room. Emma-Louise’s mission? To help as many people as possible feel connected in conversations surrounding typically taboo topics.
Sex Talks has been a sell-out event series since launch, gathering thought-leaders working across the sexual wellness industry and beyond to share their insights with the fast-growing and infinitely curious Sex Talks community.
Emma is the sex columnist for ES Magazine and the relationships columnist for Semaine. In what now feels like a past life, Emma previously worked as a producer for the BBC and Sky News here in London, and for Tina Brown’s ‘Women in The World Summit’ in New York. She is the co-founder of female-focused creative production agency, Her Hustle.
The Sex Talks podcast will be launching soon. : : Insta: @emmalouiseboynton : : Sextalks.co.uk
Kathryn Byberg
Although there are plenty of agencies that assist sexual wellness and pleasure brands, Little Leaf is the world’s first PR and communications agency dedicated solely to this category.
After spending 8 years directing PR at luxury sex toy brand LELO, and its sister intimate health brand Intimina, Kathryn Byberg took her in-depth knowledge of the sexual wellness world and her little black book of contacts to create Little Leaf Agency - the world's leading sexual wellness PR agency.
From sex toys to lubes; menstrual cups to erotica, Little Leaf is a full-service communications agency that works with leading global brands including German sex toy pioneers FUN FACTORY, USA sexologist-led sexual wellness brand Bloomi, British eco sex toy brand Love Not War, menopause activist and sex toy advocate Lou Featherstone aka LuInLuland, British retailer sextoys.co.uk, vulvovaginal care brand (and a favorite with sex workers) Momotaro Apotheca and more.
Kathryn strives to normalize sex and masturbation in the UK, USA, and Europe. Her work has won several awards including a Global PR Week award and a coveted Cannes Lions. She has witnessed big changes in attitudes toward sex and loves tearing down barriers and bringing awareness to the importance of sexual pleasure.
Insta: @littleleafagency : : www.littleleaf.agency
Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin
Prishita is an Indian queer non-binary writer, editor, campaigner, and community organiser. Previously Politics Editor at BRICKS Magazine, they are committed to sharing community stories and amplifying the voices of marginalised individuals – with by-lines in Gay Times, gal-dem, Metal, PinkNews, and Cosmopolitan, among others.
As the Digital Mobilisation Lead at Stonewall, Prishita worked with Durex in 2022 to plan and create an LGBTQ-centric sex-ed resource called All In: #MySexMyWay, bringing in a cast of five other queer people for diverse and authentic input. They also sit on the Advisory Board for sex-ed social enterprise, Split Banana, who deliver inclusive RSHE in schools and train educators.
Prishita regularly speaks on podcasts and panels, and also features in ‘Soul of a Movement’, a documentary by British creative directors Carson McColl and Gareth Pugh that documents some of the British LGBTIQ+ activists, artists and allies carrying the revolutionary fire of the Stonewall Uprising today. Prishita is also a signed author represented by Abi Fellows at The Good Literary Agency, and currently developing ideas for longer-form writing.
With a degree in Biological Anthropology, Prishita approaches all their work through an expansive and historical lens. Their relationship with their body, themselves, and with others are rooted in, and informed by, their multi-cultural and migrant identity. : : Insta: @prishita_eloise
Sex Worker of the Year
Cain WINNER!
Cain is a London based performer, sex worker and sober advocate.
Whether it’s in the club or on your internet browser, Cain fuses both masculine and feminine energies together in his work - challenging and toying with the expectations of both, resulting in a powerhouse of a performer to remember.
Frustrated at a young age about how unrealistic and detached studio porn can be, Cain turned his ambitions to always aiming to create a more in tuned depiction within porn and sex work. Forever putting dialogue about consent, mutual pleasure and even the simplest things such as lube application at the forefront of his work. You are encouraged to shake off any preconceived ideas you have around shame and expectations and rewrite the narrative of yourself - for yourself.
With nearly four years under his belt, sobriety - and education around the topic - are always spearheaded by Cain in his teachings and general ethos. Proving everyday that queer sex workers can not only survive their addiction, but also thrive.
Insta: @THATCAINGUY : : Twitter: @THATCAINGUY : : OnlyFans: onlyfans.com/c_a_i_n
Miss Gold
Miss Gold is a events curator, photographer, sex educator and Dominatrix
Miss Gold has worked with the erotic for the last eight years. She is obsessed by sex, perversions and fetishism, her photography work as one half of The London Vagabond intends to be an honest and unapologetic portrayal of human sexuality.
She’s been hosting femme only events since 2016, which over the last seven years have become ‘One Night’ parties; a space for anyone who has been read as a woman, with a focus on sexual exploration.
The overarching motive of the work she does intends to challenge and revise the structure and expectations set by society, to elevate the importance of sexual self. She believes sexuality is a freedom that we all deserve to give ourselves, and she works to create multiple platforms both online and offline to practice this.
Social media: @modestgoldx, @obeymissgold, @the.london.vagabond, @onenightparties : : thelondonvagabond.com : :: onenightparties.com
Miss Mae
Miss Mae is new to the industry at age 38 and works predominantly with the TLC Trust, supporting disabled individuals and couples with reaching their sexual wellness goals. She escorts via adultwork and offers a pro domme service too.
She is the TLC Trust’s first enabler, which means she is the first of the members to have a disabled couple in her clientele, whom she supports to help them enjoy sexual intimacy together as a couple. She hopes to go on to become a Sex Therapist, giving professional guidance and with a hands-on service.
TLC-trust.org profile : : Adultwork profile
Somatic Sexologist of the Year
Beaver Meadow WINNER!
Beaver Meadow is a pioneering Intimacy Coach and Partner Surrogate, trained in Psychosexual Somatics, Wheel of Consent and Dance Movement Therapy. Combining therapeutic principles, consent dialogues and partner surrogacy, she helps marginalised groups explore and express their sexuality. She runs a busy private practice, working in tandem with sex therapists and other allied health professionals throughout the UK and abroad.
Drawing on decades of lived experience, from incest and religious cult survivor to championing sexual sovereignty and autonomy within the disability and neurodiversity communities, she speaks candidly about her life/work to de-stigmatise and reframe taboo subjects around disability, sex work and enforced celibacy.
She is a popular podcast guest, TikTok'er and medical conference speaker and is the first partner surrogate in the UK to be paid by the NHS. She is a growing social media voice, a manifesting thought leader and is writing her much-anticipated memoirs. They don’t call her Beaver for nothing!
Insta: @thedisabilitysexcoach : : TikTik: @thedisabilitysexcoach : : FB: @womandancingwild : : thedisabilitysexcoach.com
Beck Thom
Beck Thom (they/them) is a Certified Sexological Bodyworker whose aim is to create unapologetically queer services and spaces for somatic exploration and sex education. Under the banner of Quintimacy, they offer one to one work and sex positive, consent-based, trauma-informed workshops all over the UK, which attract attendees from Europe and beyond. Beck is grateful to collaborate with queer psychotherapists and Sexological Bodywork colleagues.
Beck’s vision is for Quintimacy to create held spaces for queer and trans people to do whatever work and play they need and want, whether that is deep therapeutic sharing and heartfelt processing, or the radical community experience and exploration of queer bodily pleasure with erotic peers. And everything in between and both!
Beck embraces the sacred and the profane, and aims to bring a deeply human acceptance to queer’s experience of their emotions, bodies and sex. A graduate of Like a Pro [The Wheel of Consent® for Professionals], Beck enjoys weaving the consent geekery all the way through their work. Quintimacy Level 2 explores themes like power, sensation and kink, all based on Quintimacy’s solid foundation of consent, ethical practice, trauma informed practice and welcoming of neurodiversity and all intersections of queer lives.
Beck enjoys writing about queer and trans sex, and last year was honoured to write in a chapter titled “Trans desire and embodiment” in the 2022 book Queering Psychotherapy, edited by Jane C. Czyzselska. : : Insta: @quintimacyuk : : Quintimacy.com
Lucy Rowett
Lucy Rowett is a certified sex coach and sexologist, writer, speaker, and podcaster.
Lucy is passionate not just about sex positivity and sex education, but helping sexuality professionals to flourish in their work too, because she believes the world desperately needs our work. In her work she has helped facilitate both sexology trainings, and business and marketing training for sexuality professionals. She is the former Marketing Associate for Sex Coach U, and is known as a social media expert in the sexuality industry. She is the resident sex coach for UK contraception platform, The Lowdown, and is a regular contributor to the media such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour Magazine, Kinkly, and The Body Magazine. She is the host of The Naked and Unashamed Life Podcast, and is passionate about clearly communicating about sexual health and pleasure to be accessible to everyone.
Lucy believes in working both with the mind and the body, by using a combination of somatic, embodiment, and sacred sexuality tools with evidence-based sexuality education to help women and vulva havers to explore their full erotic potential. In her work with women and people with vulvas, she aims to help people come home to the body and make topics like sex, sexuality, pleasure, and embodiment easy to understand.
Sex positivity has been one of her core values for years, because she genuinely believes that sexuality education will save the world, especially in the current times we are living in. Growing up in a religious household and needing to heal her own body and spirit, what started as a personal sexual healing journey became her life's work.
LucyRowett.com : : Insta: @lucylurowett : : Facebook: @lucyrowettcsc : : LinkedIn: @lucy-rowett-csc : : Free PDF on how to confidently ask for what you want in bed : : The Naked and Unashamed Life Podcast on Spotify : : The Naked and Unashamed Life Podcast on iTunes:
Stripper of the Year
Sponsored by Vibez Adult Boutique
Averi
Averi is a high-octane slinky seductress who brings everything from fiery thrills to floor fuckery and downright debauchery.
Averi’s always had an enmeshment for movement and serving music through dance, stemming from a classical background in music and dance, and has carried this into her performance work since starting in the sex industry in 2018.
Averi is a co-organiser of Cybertease, a unionised sex worker collective creating sex worker-led strip club events and reclaiming power to workers in the industry. Formed as a response to the pandemic and closure of strip clubs in early 2020, Cybertease have since expanded to running regular sex worker run strip club events in London, facilitating workshops and stripping across the UK’s hottest stages.
Averi’s involvement knows no bounds; as well as frequenting fetish events queer clubs and festivals across the country, Averi has performed live with Whoreible Decisions podcast, worked alongside X-Pole and been featured in TimeOut, Channel, 4 gal-dem zine and HKW Berlin.
Averi strives to do more with her career and is still ticking off boxes of firsts. For example, Averi completed her first show stripping in drag this year as well as performing in a sober rave. Whether it’s stripping, cabaret or classical, Averi has always represented the loud, the black, the queer, and the naked!
Instagram: @MissAveri : : Twitter: @MissAveri : : Cybertease.co.uk
Photo: Maite de Orbe
Black Venus WINNER!
Black Venus is a professional Afro-disiac who has been in the sex industry for over a decade.
Martial artist, writer, performer and facilitator, her work is an exploration of seeking pleasure, power and agency within circumstances where they are often denied. She is co-founder of Sex and Rage, a sex worker and activist-led organisation resisting stigma and shame through sex education.
Liberty Rae
Liberty Rae is known in the Sussex sex worker community as a fierce performer, competitor, teacher and advocate for sex worker liberation. Starting off her career as a pole dancing performer and stripper in various clubs throughout Brighton and West Sussex, Liberty has been able to take her incredible performance skills across the country, and eventually to Berlin and throughout the US.
Her style has since evolved, whilst maintaining its club girl origins, Liberty has been able to incorporate aspects of contemporary dance and circus into her performance through her use of aerial hoop and fire work. She is now a regular performer at Sexquisite, a night of sex worker celebration in a cabaret styled show and the one and only Sex & Rage.
Liberty has faced many of her own obstacles, both with her physical body and mental health. Through her social media Liberty has been able to showcase her determination and commitment to performance, whilst also demonstrating her resilience as an individual and as an influence to other performers with hidden disabilities.
Liberty has also made a name for herself in the Brighton Queer community as a performer as well as being gender non conforming, and part of the lesbian community within the world of sex work. Performing at Pride Brighton as well as the notorious Club Revenge and working with other LGBTQ+ sex workers and performers, she is active in the encouragement of acknowledging the existence of Queer folk within sex worker spaces.
Liberty can now be found performing at nightclubs across south of England as well as teaching from her own home studio.
Insta: @lxbertyrae
Outsiders Volunteer of the Year Award
Fiona Solomon, TLC manager – Joint Outsiders Volunteer of the Year
Fiona has been volunteering for the Outsiders since 2019 when she was a Trustee for 16 months. She then left this role to update and manage the TLC trust website. She worked had on ensuring that Tuppy’s original text remained, just in a more modern and organised way and collaborated with the web designer to update and modernise the page. Mainly so that providers could edit their own profiles.
With her 10 year background in social work she was able to write policies and procedures for approval and complaints and with the help of her new admin, Linzi, is now setting up diverse social media accounts for the site. As well as assessing and fielding approvals, she fields many emails and calls and is writing a ‘Disability friendly user guide to Adultwork’! As there are many gaps in the country on TLC itself.
Her 10 years + experience as a full-service sex worker (including 7 years on TLC) aids her in her assessment of appropriate applicants as does her lifetime of working with people with a diverse range of visible and invisible disabilities.
Nicola Howard – Joint Outsiders Volunteer of the Year
Nicola Howard has been helping Tuppy Owens as a volunteer for Outsiders since she was 18 years old. At 55 years old, this has spanned across her life now for 38 years! She frequently attended Outsiders lunches in London, helped at the Sex Maniacs Ball (once held in a field) and the Awards over the years, and enjoyed every moment of it.
Nicola is very interested in the problems around disabilities and works hard to get these issues resolved and researched. A particular project she is working on is getting hoists into GP surgeries to enable sexual health examinations.
On a personal level, Nicola works in health care, and loves cooking, entertaining, music and dancing and last of all, photography.
Nicola says “My apologies for not being able to attend such a wonderful event. That I have been nominated is just absolutely wonderful. I hope you all have an absolutely fabulous time and all my love to those that I have known over the years”.
Lifetime Achievement Award
These are discretionary awards given by the Judging Panel for long-standing dedication to sexual freedom, exploration and expression.
Stefan Dickers
Stef Dickers is the Special Collections and Archives Manager at The Bishopsgate Institute, London. Since arriving there in 2005, he has been responsible in making the Library possibly the most accessible LGBTQ+ collection in the UK providing a home, not only for the archives of major organisations and individuals like Switchboard and Paris Lees, but also for records of anyone who would like their story recorded for posterity. He is committed to ensuring that queer narratives, life stories and experiences often overlooked by major institutions have a place they can call home where they will be celebrated in a sex positive and safe environment.
In 2016, he established the UK Leather and Fetish Archive at the Institute, a project to document, record and celebrate the history and heritage of the fetish, kink and BDSM communities in the UK. He gives over 100 talks and tours a year to community groups, students and anyone who will listen about LGBTQIA+ history and the other treasures held in the archive. All of these resources continue to grow, inspire and educate, and document LGBTQ+ and Alternative Sexuality histories for future generations that would be unrecorded by most organisations.
Insta: @stefan.dickers : : Twitter: @stefdickers : : www.bishopsgate.org.uk
Previous Lifetime Achievement awardees have included:
Derek Jarman – Anthony Grey (leading English lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights activist) – Deborah Ryder (writer of erotic fiction representing female masochism) – Kathy Acker (author) – Berth Milton (photographer & founder of Private in 1965) – Charles Gatewood (photographer) – Betty Dodson (author, artist & educator) – William Levy (founder of Suck & International Times) – Irena Ionesco (photographer) – Derek Cohen (founder of SM Gays in 1981) – Jo King (founder of the London School of Stripping) – Sir Guy of The Tawsingham Community and The Other Pony Club – William Margold (porn actor, director and activist) – Dian Hanson (publisher) – Dolores French (author of Working: My Life as a Prostitute) – Empress Stah (Aerial Artist, Cabaret Theatre Performer, Show Producer) – Barbara Carrellas (author of the the world’s first LGBTQ and kink inclusive Tantric sex book, Urban Tantra) – Joseph Kramer (pioneering founder of The Body Electric School, EroSpirit & Sexological Bodywork) – Kenneth Ray Stubbs (quadriplegic sexual shaman & originator of modern tantric massage) – Crossbones (John Constable) – Dominic Davies (Pink Therapy) - 50th anniversary of the first U.K. Gay Pride March in 1972 (collected by Andrew Lumsden and Nettie Pollard for the GLF)