The Topp Twins feel as though they were misled by the LGBTI Awards and now want nothing to do with the accolade.

The Topp Twins say their "souls were sold to the higher bidder" at an awards show they thought would celebrate inspirational leaders in the Rainbow community.

New Zealand's most beloved entertainer duo and staunch supporters of LGBTI people, Dames Jools and Lynda Topp were given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the New Zealand LGBTI Awards on Thursday night, but say they feel misled and now want nothing to do with the accolade.

The LGBTI Awards were brought to New Zealand for the first time this year, by the same team that runs them in the UK and in Australia.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF The Topp Twins were awarded a Life Time Achievement Award of the Year at the New Zealand LGBTI 2018 awards.

A number of rainbow community leaders voiced concern over a lack of financial transparency, and refusal to engage with Rainbow groups locally, since nominations for awards began to appear on social media earlier this year.

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In June, nine LGBTI organisations sent a joint letter to the awards organisers, Australian Silke Bader and local representative Suran Dickson, voicing concern about their pitch for hard-won corporate cash.

SUPPLIED New Zealand police received the Organisation of the Year prize at the NZ LGBTI awards held in Auckland on Thursday night.

An estimate at the time put the amount solicited from companies for sponsorship, and from 1200 nominees for the price of a ticket, at around a quarter of a million dollars.

"The rainbow community in Aotearoa operate in a small funding pool and some organisations barely break even," said Toni Duder of diversity charity Rainbow Youth at the time.

"And to have a black tie event like this approaching corporates for big sums of money when we don't have enough for what we do, doesn't seem right."

Hannah Peters Jools Topp and Lynda Topp pose with their Lifetime Achievement award at the New Zealand LGBTI Awards.

Awards bosses were also criticised for a lack of transparency over the nomination process.

A number of people turned down their nominations, publicly saying they would not support the awards until questions on financial transparency were answered.

The Topp Twins said they were unaware of the controversy when they were told by organisers they had won the Lifetime Achievement Award - the only category that was not open for nomination and did not have a set of finalists.

RAINBOW YOUTH Toni Duder, communications manager for diversity charity Rainbow Youth previously spoke out about how the awards night didn't seem right.

Jools and Lynda said they were told they had won, but did not know anything else about the awards until the night.

"We were just suddenly informed we had been given the lifetime achievement award by the lesbian and gay community. It had New Zealand on it, so we assumed it was the New Zealand community's awards.

"We had no idea that it was a company from Australia and that same company had been doing this in the UK and Australia. They said on the night that they were going straight to New York to do it there next."

DIVERSITY ROLE MODELS Suran Dickson is one of the organisers of the New Zealand LGBTI Awards.

Jools said there were a "number of red flags" raised on the night, including the corporate nature of many of the categories.

"There did not seem to be many awards to people within the community," Lynda said.

"If they'd been called the Gay Friendly Corporate Awards, that would have been a much better title."

"The main thing is the image of all the famous faces of the gay and lesbian community are up there on the Facebook (page) now and the sponsor's branding is now between those faces, but where is the money," Jools added.

"They need to be transparent."

Despite feeling increasingly uncomfortable, the twins said they did not feel they could refuse to accept the award on the night, as it might seem they were being unsupportive of the LGBTI community more broadly.

Earlier in the year, organisers claimed money from the initiative would be put through a rainbow charity. They later said the event would be running at a loss.

The twins said there was a marked lack of diversity among the "mainly corporate" crowd of around 350 in the ballroom at Auckland's Cordis Hotel.

"If it's the awards for the LGBTI you'd think there would be a lot of lesbian and gay and transgender people there. And more sponsors and more businesses and more politicians got awards than any of the community, which seems ridiculous."

Police also won two top prizes at the awards, despite canning compulsory staff sexual orientation and gender identity training two years ago.

New Zealand Police was crowned Organisation of the Year, and Inspector Tracy Phillips, co-ordinator of the police's diversity liaison service, was awarded Corporate and Social Ally.

The New Zealand LGBTI Awards organisers did not respond to Stuff's request for comment.