Monday, March 23, 2015

Kerry Washington's 2015 GLAAD Vanguard Award Acceptance Speech

Kerry Washington at the 26th annual GLAAD Media Awards 
As y'all know, I have much love for Kerry Washington, and look forward to the day when I can meet her and let my inner fangirl loose,

In accepting the Vanguard Award last night, she cut loose with a powerful speech that brought the assembled crowd to their feet.  One portion of it was calling out the hypocrisy of marginalized communities turning on each other.

"So when Black people today tell me that they don't believe in gay marriage… the first thing that I say is please don't let anybody try to get you to vote against your own best interests 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 start 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 others existence and the truth of each other’s 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."

And here's the video of that Vanguard Award acceptance speech.


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