I am honored to announce that I have been awarded the Sarah Pettit LGBT Journalist of the Year Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. Additionally, for the second year in a row, I have won the Excellence in News Writing Award, this year for my reporting at Metro Weekly on the Department of Justice’s decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court. Congratulations to the other winners, including Steven Thrasher and Jim Burroway, and to the others recognized for their work, including Sean Bugg, Michael Luongo and Adam Polaski. 

In announcing the news, NLGJA had the following to say about my Sarah Pettit Award:

Geidner has been the go-to voice for important news stories in Washington, D.C., covering the White House, Supreme Court, and Justice Department. His sober and intelligent writing thoroughly explains some of the most important political stories of the year, quickly becoming one of the most attributed LGBT journalists online and in the mainstream press.

Thanks much to NLGJA and the judges for their time and the honor! 

I am daily grateful — and always pleasantly surprised — that I have the opportunity to make this work into my career. Thanks, especially, to Sean and Randy Shulman at Metro Weekly for their support over the past two-and-a-half years and to Ben Smith at BuzzFeed, where I start this coming week, for giving me yet another opportunity to continue to do this important work.