At the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference, the Tammy Baldwin Breakthrough Award is awarded to a rising star in the LGBTQ+ political community who, as the 2021 recipient and Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau puts it, holds the promise of “and justice for all.”
Denver Councilmember Shontel Lewis, a “keeper of that promise,” has dedicated her career to fighting for LGBTQ+ rights and democracy. Lewis is recognized for her leadership on housing justice and for improving healthcare and education outcomes, making her the perfect recipient of the 2025 Tammy Baldwin Breakthrough Award at the 41st annual International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference.
“Representation is indeed power,” said Fecteau while presenting the award. “Councilmember Lewis, she has the power, and she’s using it to advocate for her community, channeling her lived experience as a Black queer mom into results for young people, for marginalized families, for folks across the city of Denver.”
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the namesake of the award, made history multiple times as the first out lesbian elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, the first lesbian to serve in the Wisconsin State Assembly, as the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, and then again as the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 and the first woman to represent Wisconsin in the upper house.
“I never ran to be the first of anything. I never ran to make history,” said Baldwin in a video message to congratulate Lewis. “I ran to make a difference, a difference in people’s lives. But I also never shied away from who I am or what I know to be right. And if my work to show that you can be exactly who you are, serve your community, and fight for equality has inspired others, I am truly honored.”
Baldwin congratulated each of the nominees who have never shied away from who they are, according to the senator.
“We cannot build a more just future without ensuring that people of all identities and lived experiences have a seat at the table, including members of the LGBTQ community,” said Baldwin. “As you may have heard me say before, if you’re not in the room, the conversation is about you. If you are in the room, the conversation is with you.”
“And this year’s award recipient has fought hard to have a seat at the table,” added Baldwin.
The senator said Lewis, who has previously served as the Director of Family & Community Engagement at Denver Public Schools and as Vice President of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, “has devoted herself to uplifting the communities that shaped her.”
“She transformed personal hardship into a powerful commitment to housing justice and turned her lived resilience into public leadership,” continued the senator before introducing Lewis.
Lewis gave a powerful speech, urging LGBTQ+ people to stand up against oppression and not be silent, reflecting on growing up poor and facing injustices, but learning early on not to allow her circumstances to deter her.
“I grew up poor, a tough life in which my mother suffered the ills of poverty and somehow climbed out of what was meant to kill her and instead bloomed us,” said Lewis. “I learned early what injustice looked like and fought early to unwind it in our lives. I learned as a child what a thin line existed between being oppressed and becoming the oppressor.”
“We as queer folks, as trans folks, as non-binary folks cannot fall into the traps of our oppressors,” continued Lewis. “If there was a time to be silent, today is not that day, nor tomorrow, nor ever.”
While Lewis offered sentiments of resilience and vigilance for LGBTQ+ people, she also challenged elected officials to examine their principles.
“When we are willing to evaluate ourselves and ask what our principles are, and are my principles grounded in my values, and is my decision-making grounded in my principles or my preferences?” questioned Lewis.
The councilmember criticized leaders who abandon their values once they get the votes. “Then the vote comes, then the plan comes, and the principles are thrown out the window,” Lewis said. “Because it’s easier.”
“We betray our communities,” she added. “We betray the very communities that believe in us.”
She called on LGBTQ+ leaders to embrace accountability and courage. “It’s not enough to look like me, to be queer like me,” said Lewis. “But to stand in your principles — even if that means losing your seat.”
Lewis closed her acceptance speech by encouraging LGBTQ+ people to fight and stand up even while facing the weight of the political threats.
“I’m humbled for this incredible honor to be named the recipient of the Tammy Baldwin Breakthrough Award after a trailblazer who showed us that being proudly out in office is not just possible but powerful means more than I can say,” said Lewis. “So fight. Don’t fold under the pressure of this moment.”
