The 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards was on March 22nd in Los Angeles. The event’s highlight was Scandal’s Kerry Washington’s acceptance of the Vanguard Award, given to her for her support as a powerful LGBT ally. Her speech was so powerful that the audience was on its feet almost throughout the whole speech. She did not only mention the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. She also mentioned the intersex community too, which not many people refer to at all.
Washington spoke of the norms, the media handling of disenfranchised communities and she called out the hypocrisy of marginalized communities turning on one another. [pullquote]”…So when black people today tell me they do not believe in gay marriage … so, the first thing that I say is, please don’t let anybody try to get you to vote against your own best interest by feeding you messages of hate. And then I say, you know people used to say stuff like that about you and your love and if we let the government try to legislate love in our lifetime, who do you think is next? …”[/pullquote]
“…Also remember just 30 years before that the Supreme Court was deciding that the ban against interracial marriages was unconstitutional. Up until then heterosexual people of different races couldn’t marry who they wanted to marry either. So when black people today tell me they do not believe in gay marriage … so, the first thing that I say is, please don’t let anybody try to get you to vote against your own best interest by feeding you messages of hate. And then I say, you know people used to say stuff like that about you and your love and if we let the government try to legislate love in our lifetime, who do you think is next? We can’t say that we believe in each other’s fundamental humanity and then turn a blind eye to the reality of each other’s existence and the truth of each others hearts. We must be allies, and we must be allies in this business because to be represented is to be humanized and as long as anyone, anywhere is being made to feel less human our very definition of humanity is at stake and we are all vulnerable. … Until we are no longer first and exceptions and rare and unique. In the real world being an other is the norm. In the real world the only norm is uniqueness and our media must reflect that!”
To view the whole video and her fiery speech, click here.
The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community and the issues that affect their lives.
