{"id":10213,"date":"2026-07-30T11:17:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/?page_id=10213"},"modified":"2026-08-05T21:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:50:22","slug":"2026-emerging-leader","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/2026-emerging-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Emerging leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>\n\t\t\t\t2026 AWARDEES\n\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t<h1>\n\t\t\t\tEmerging leader\n\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/EML.jpg\" alt=\"EML\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"1007\" width=\"755\" title=\"EML\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n<h2>\n\t\tMmapaseka Steve Letsike  \n\t<\/h2>\n\t<p>Steve Letsike is an emerging South African political leader whose public service is grounded in decades of human rights activist and social justice advocacy. After years of working through civil society to advance LGBTIQ+ equality, public health and intersectional justice, she entered Parliament in 2024 and was appointed Deputy Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. In this role, she is bringing grassroots experience into government to address discrimination, violence, unequal access to public health services and the underrepresentation of LGBTIQ+ people in political life. Her rise in national politics is expanding LGBTIQ+ representation and demonstrating how movement leadership can shape policy and institutional change.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/m9VB8PbQ-SI\" target=\"_blank\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tClick to view the video in Spanish\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V2aRnVYDAZI\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t<h3>\n\t\t\t\t2026 AWARDEES\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t<p>Sorry, we couldn&#8217;t find any posts. Please try a different search.<\/p>\n\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026 AWARDEES Emerging leader Mmapaseka Steve Letsike Steve Letsike is an emerging South African political leader whose public service is grounded in decades of human rights activist and social justice advocacy. After years of working through civil society to advance LGBTIQ+ equality, public health and intersectional justice, she entered Parliament in 2024 and was appointed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10237,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Emerging leader - International Pride Awards","description":"2026 AWARDEES Emerging leader Mmapaseka Steve Letsike Steve Letsike is an emerging South African political leader whose public service is grounded in decades of"},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10213","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10213"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10289,"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10213\/revisions\/10289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalprideawards.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}