SMILE IF YOU’RE GLAD: The Phoenix’s Stephen M. Mindich (second from left), with wife Maria Lopez, the Provincetown Banner’s Alix Ritchie, and GLAD’s Johanna Schulman.

The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) this past weekend honored Boston Phoenix founder and publisher Stephen M. Mindich for his “early, ardent, and ongoing” support of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered community, as well as his steadfast commitment to helping people living with HIV/AIDS.

Mindich was celebrated at GLAD’s 25th-annual summer party, held in Provincetown. “Stephen made the Phoenix one of the first non-gay newspapers to cover the gay community in a serious way,” said executive director Lee Swislow, citing in particular a safer-sex kit that was inserted in the Phoenix at the very onset of the AIDS epidemic. That kit was extremely controversial at the time, and was an early effort to underscore the seriousness of AIDS during an era when many wanted to ignore it and its implications.

“In my forty years in journalism, I’ve received my fair share of awards,” said Mindich, “but this one makes me especially proud.”

Alix Ritchie, the publisher of the Provincetown Banner, made the presentation on behalf of GLAD. Previous honorees include Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Michael Cunningham and the Fine Arts Works Center.