GAY NEWS NETWORK
GLEN MORET
16-year-old teenager Georgie Stone has become the youngest person ever to receive the Anti-Defamation Commission’s Making a Difference Award.
- Stone is the youngest person ever to receive the ADC Making a Difference Award
- She also received the GLBTI Person of the Year Award earlier in 2016
Earlier in the year Stone shared her story on the ABC’s Australian Story program, detailing the bullying and legal hurdles she has gone through as a trans person.
At age 11 together with her parents help, Georgia became the youngest person in Australia to be granted pubertal suppression, going on to lobby the Family Court to approve treatment for all transgender children.
In accepting the award Stone said despite so much progress there is still much more to be done.
“It was an honour to receive the Making a Difference Award from the Anti-Defamation Commission,” she said.
“We have made so much progress in the fight for transgender rights, but there is still a long way to go. Our combined efforts will hopefully bring about the change in laws and acceptance that we need to progress as a society.”
ADC’s Dvir Abramovich with Georgie Stone. Source: ALEPH Melbourne.
Chairman of the ADC Doctor Dvir Abramovich said Stone is a remarkable young woman.
“Her courageous advocacy for the LGBTI community and for all people and her unwavering dedication to create a kinder and more tolerant Australia perfectly mirror our core mission of combatting discrimination and promoting diversity,” he said.
“She is a one-of-a-kind inspirational advocate for social change and a positive role model for young people to stand up to hatred and bullying.”
Twins Harry on the left and George on the right. Photo by: Jackie Cohen.
Abramovich said Stone’s passionate voice reminds everyone that, “we all have a duty to bring greater awareness to the impact of bias, to advance equality and opportunity and to build bridges of understanding”.
Since pushing the Family Court to approve treatment for all trans children, a partial victory came in 2013 when the court decided children no longer needed to come to them for stage one treatment but would still be required for the second stage – which entails irreversible changes.
Stone also took out GLBTI Person of the Year Award at the GLOBE Awards earlier in the year.