Adele Roberts

Adele Roberts is a DJ and presenter who rose to fame as one of the housemates in Big Brother 3 in 2002. Roberts currently presents BBC Radio 1’s Early Breakfast Show. Roberts is openly bisexual and spoke about the challenges of being LGBT+ and working in commercial radio on a panel at National Student Pride in 2016. She is a supporter and runner for the mental health charity HeadsTogether.

WINNER!   Clare Balding

Clare Balding is a presenter/broadcaster and author who was awarded a BAFTA and an RTS Presenter of the Year Award, for her coverage of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Balding, who is openly gay, has been presenting sport television on the BBC since 1998. She was a strong advocate of marriage equality in the UK and married her partner Alice Arnold in 2015. Balding has received LGBT+ awards from the Out in the City and g3 Awards, the Attitude Awards, the Stonewall Awards and many others.

Graham Norton

Graham Norton is a television presenter, actor and writer, best known for The Graham Norton Show and So Graham Norton. Norton is openly gay, and has been a vocal advocate of same-sex marriage. He said he never officially “came out”, but while working as a waiter and applying to drama schools in London, everyone assumed he was gay, so “in the end there was nobody to come out to.” Norton supports the Elton John AIDs Foundation.

Jane Hill

Jane Hill is a BBC newsreader and broadcaster who has presented on the BBC News Channel since its launch in 1997 and regularly presents the BBC Weekend News and BBC World News. Hill came out as gay in the BBC’s in-house magazine in 2009, and has been a vocal advocate of LGBT+ rights ever since. In 2016 she joined the Diva Magazine team as a columnist.

Owen Jones

Owen Jones is a columnist, author, commentator and political activist. He regularly writes about LGBT+ issues in his weekly column at The Guardian and also in his previous role at the Independent. The Daily Telegraph placed Jones seventh in its 2013 list of Britain’s most influential left-wingers. Jones is openly gay, a feminist and a champion of transgender rights. He was awarded Journalist of the Year at the Stonewall Awards in 2012.

Paul O’Grady

Paul O’Grady is a television presenter, comedian, actor and writer, perhaps best-known for his drag queen character, Lilly Savage, an act he used to champion gay rights. His most popular television work includes The Paul O’Grady Show and ‘Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs’. O’Grady is openly gay and has been with his partner Andre Portasio since 2006. He has been vocal in addressing issues of LGBT+ rights in the Church.

Rylan Clark-Neal

Rylan Clark-Neal is a presenter, singer and model whose big break was on ‘The X Factor’ in 2012. Clark-Neal’s work as a presenter has included Big Brother’s Bit on the Side, The Xtra Factor and Up Late with Rylan. Clark-Neal is openly gay and is a vocal supporter of the LGBT+ community. In 2015, Clark-Neal won The Telegraph’s ‘LGBT Celebrity of the Year’ award and in 2016 he and his husband Dan Neal were the first gay couple to present an episode of This Morning.

Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow is a presenter, political commentator and author. She is the host of the Emmy award-winning ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ on MSNBC. She was the first openly gay news anchor in a mainstream news show in the USA and is a fiercely outspoken on LGBT+ rights issues. She was named in Out Magazines Out 100 in 2009, was number six in their Annual Power 50 List, voted Lesbian/Bi Woman of the Year by AfferEllen in 2008, sixth in their Hot 100 list in 2009 and is a GLAAD award winner for Outstanding TV Journalism

Sue Perkins

Sue Perkins is a comedian, broadcaster, actress and writer. Perkins has starred in and presented many television programmes, but is more recently known for co-presenting the hugely popular Great British Bake off with Mel Giedroyc. Perkins wrote and starred in called Heading Out, a comedy sitcom about a woman who has not come out to her parents, which aired on BBC2. She was sixth in the Independent on Sunday’s 2014 Rainbow List and is currently in a relationship with the presenter Anna Richardson.

Tyler Oakley

Tyler Oakley is an author, activist and YouTuber. Oakley began making videos in 2007 as part of the YouTube channel 5 Awesome Gays. He is openly gay and much of his work focuses on the challenges faced by LGBT+ youth. In 2013 Oakley co-hosted a pop culture news show with Becca Frucht entitled ‘Top That!’. His latest venture, ‘The Tyler Oakley Show’ airs weekly on Ellen Degeneres’ platform: ellentube. He also starred in a video on education issues alongside former First Lady Michelle Obama. In 2014 The Advocate included him in their 40 under 40 Emerging voices list. Oakley is a supporter of The Trevor Project, an organisation to prevent suicide among LGBT youth.