02/13/2026
We invite you to submit recommendations for the 2026 Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast Awards, presented at the 36th annual breakfast. Founded in 1990, the event has served for over three decades as a space to inform, affirm, and empower LGBTQIA+ people of color and allies.
This year’s theme, “Knowledge and Community Is Power: 36 Years Protecting Our Communities Through Care, Love, and Continued Conversation,” honors the wisdom, resilience, and collective power sustaining communities through the ongoing HIV/AIDS response.
The Bayard Rustin Award for Courage—named in honor of Bayard Rustin—is presented annually to one individual (living or posthumously) who embodies courage, integrity, and service. Nominees should identify as LGBTQ+, a person of color, or be a committed ally, and must have made significant contributions within the past year to HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, advocacy, or care.
We encourage you to recommend leaders, organizers, artists, caregivers, and advocates whose work reflects courage, care, and collective power.
Deadline: Saturday, February 21, 2026.
https://forms.gle/jLA6TxiNSZv2TkQW8
(Link also available in our Instagram bio.)