tFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 19, 2022
PRESS CONTACT: Clare Lefebure
Press@nlgja.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 19, 2022) – Today, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists announced that award-winning journalist Chuck Culpepper is the 2022 recipient of the Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage.
“Chuck stands out as a sports journalist in a field that is often short on LGBTQ representation,” said Executive Director Adam Pawlus. “His unique perspective and incisive reporting are more than worthy of this recognition, and we are pleased to celebrate his work.”
The Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage is designed to honor a journalist whose body of work is distinguished by insight and impact through engaging features on LGBTQ individuals, the LGBTQ community or LGBTQ issues. The award is named for the pseudonym Edythe Eyde used for her pioneering publication, Vice Versa, which she had to hand deliver to avoid running afoul of laws that made it illegal to send material about lesbians through the mail. In the 1950s, she wrote under with the pen name Lisa Ben for The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine.
Culpepper is a reporter for The Washington Post covering national college sports, golf, international sports and tennis. He previously wrote for Sports On Earth/USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Oregonian, the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. In 2013, his column “The Gay SuperBowl” explored his experience as a gay man working in the sports journalism world and chronicled his interaction with NFL linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, an ally of the LGBTQ community.
To learn more about NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists yearly awards, visit nlgja.org.
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