Fiona Jane Dawson (born 31 July 1977) is a writer, producer, and film director. She is best known for the documentary TransMilitary, which premiered at

SXSW Film Festival South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both ...

in 2018 and won the Audience Award. Dawson is an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

-nominated documentarian and has lived in America since 2000.

Career

In 2015, Dawson was commissioned by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

to direct and produce the short opinion documentary, ''Transgender at War and in Love''. The film was released on June 4, 2015, on The Times' Op-Doc platform and was positioned that day on the publication's website home page. The film's success earned Dawson the honor of being an LGBT Artist Champion of Change awarded by The Obama White House. The film won The White House News Photographers Association's Best Documentary, was nominated for a

GLAAD Award The GLAAD Media Award is a US accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding portrayals of LGBTQ people and the issues that affect their lives. In addition to film and television, the Awards ...

in the Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia category, and was a nominee for Outstanding Short Documentary in the 37th Annual News & Documentary

. The film's characters Senior Airman Logan Ireland and Corporal Laila Villanueva were interviewed on

The Ellen Show ''The Ellen Show'' is an American television sitcom created by and starring Ellen DeGeneres that was broadcast during the 2001–02 season on CBS, airing from September 24, 2001, to January 11, 2002. It also starred Cloris Leachman, Martin M ...

and participated in a private reception in

The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...

with

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...

, making Senior Airman Ireland the first openly

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

service member to walk the halls of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in uniform. Fiona continued working with director Gabriel Silverman and created the full-length feature documentary TransMilitary which follows Senior Airman Logan Ireland, Corporal Laila Villanueva, Captain Jennifer Peace and First Lieutenant El Cook. The film premiered at

in 2018 and won the Best Feature Documentary Audience Award. Dawson has served on the national board of directors of the

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for L ...

and the board of directors for NLGJA - The National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association.

Awards

* 2009 Houston's ''Female Grand Marshal'' for the 2009

LGBT Pride In the context of LGBTQ culture, pride (also known as LGBTQ pride, LGBTQIA pride, LGBT pride, queer pride, gay pride, or gay and lesbian pride) is the promotion of the rights, self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility o ...

Parade. * 2015 Identified as an ''LGBT Artist Champion of Change'' by

. * 2016 Emmy Award Nominee for ''Transgender, at War and in Love''. * 2016 GLAAD Award Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia category. * 2018

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Best Feature Documentary Audience Award for '' TransMilitary''.

Personal life

Dawson is originally from

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 2000 becoming a

US citizen Citizenship of the United States is a citizenship, legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by ...

in 2008. Fiona lives in

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

, Texas, is openly

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, and advocates for the

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

community.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Fiona Living people American human rights activists English emigrants to the United States American LGBTQ writers American LGBTQ rights activists Women civil rights activists American documentary film directors American LGBTQ film directors 1977 births British LGBTQ film directors