The 36th Annual GLAAD Media Awards was a magical night, in more ways the one. Hosted by the hilarious Michael Urie, the ceremony served as a beacon of hope in what has already been a historically difficult year for the LGBTQ community.
The night included moving performances and inspiring speeches. With Doechii winning Outstanding Music Artist, Will & Harper winning Outstanding Documentary, Hacks winning Outstanding Comedy Series, performances from Jake Wesley Rogers and Tanner Adell, amongst so much more, the night was a celebration of queer joy and a reminder that we are not going anywhere.
One standout moment of the evening was actress and singer Cynthia Erivo’s acceptance of GLAAD’s iconic Stephen F. Kolzak Award. Each year, this award is given to a LGBTQ media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting LGBTQ acceptance.
Erivo’s work as Elphaba in Wicked is just the tip of the iceberg of her legacy. Her career took off with her 2015 Tony Award-winning portrayal of Celie in The Color Purple on Broadway, where she broke barriers playing as Celie Harris, one of the few leading Black queer characters in musical theater. In 2016, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, delivering one of the most powerful performances in Broadway history, particularly in the iconic number, “I’m Here.” Erivo continued to impress with her portrayal of abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the 2019 film Harriet, earning Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nominations.
Erivo’s contributions to LGBTQ visibility extend from screen to stage, with her bold commitment to representing the complexities of queer and Black identities – both in her work and her personal advocacy – positioning her as a trailblazer and a true champion for future generations of LGBTQ creatives, especially those from communities of color.
The award was presented to Erivo by actor Brandon Kyle Goodman. She took the opportunity to shout out trans and nonbinary people and remind audiences the importance of community.
Read her full speech below:
This has been a wild, wild ride, and I’ve been deeply grateful for every second of it. But more than anything, I have seen and felt how open-armed my community has been.
I have spoken about being your whole self and your true self, I speak about the prizes that come from being you against the odds, but rarely do I acknowledge how hard that can be. So I thought that I would make some room for those of us who are trying to find the courage to exist as we want. Because I think this is the space to do that.
It isn’t easy. None of it is, waking up and choosing to be yourself, proclaiming a space belongs to you when you don’t feel welcomed. Teaching people on a daily basis how to address you, and dealing with the frustration of re-teaching people a word that has been in the human vocabulary since the dawn of time: they/them. Words used to describe pedantically two or more people; poetically, a person who is simply more.
It isn’t easy to ask people to treat you with dignity since you should just have it as a given. It isn’t easy to learn to grow who you are if the world around you is knocking at your door telling you to stay inside. Some flowers bloom against all the odds, like the peony, but most flowers need to be tended to and cared for before they brave the light and open up their petals to the sun.
Here in this room, we have all been the recipients of the gift that is the opportunity to be more. I doubt that it has come easy to any of us, but more, for some, the road has not been one paved with yellow bricks, but instead paved with bumps and potholes. Whichever road you have travelled, how beautiful it is that you’ve had a road to travel on at all. There are the invisible ones who have had no road at all. For those who have not yet even begun to find the road, be encouraged and be patient with yourself, it will show itself.
I know that this event is to celebrate the work that we do and I am endlessly grateful for this honor and the celebration of this, but the real work is making the ground we leave in our wake level enough for the next person who finds their way to the path we have made. For the person who is searching and searching and has not found it yet. This room is full of people who can and will, if they choose, and I hope they will, because I do, to be lanterns to light up your journey and your path on your way to showing the world who you are.
We use the phrase ‘out and proud,’ and though you might not have the strength or capacity to do that now, know that I am proud of your quiet and solitary want to be just that. We are all visible. We can be seen. We see each other. I see you, you see me. But think of those who have not been seen, think of those who sit in the dark and wait their turn, hoping and waiting for a light to light their path. I ask every single one of you in this room, with the spaces that you’re in, and the lights that you hold, to point it in the direction of someone who just needs a little guidance.
Thank you GLAAD for this beautiful honor, please ALL have a beautiful night.
Previous recipients of the Stephen F. Kolzak Award include: Niecy Nash-Betts, Jeremy Pope, Laverne Cox, Wanda Sykes, Jim Parsons, Ruby Rose, Chaz Bono, Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez and more.
Learn more about the night’s big winners here! The event will be available for streaming exclusively on Hulu beginning April 12th.