On Saturday night, Keke Palmer took home the Vanguard Award at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s annual gala.
“I’m so grateful to be here today to be embraced by a community that I’ve always felt accepted by and part of,” said Palmer upon accepting the award.
She continued:
“Sexuality and identity for me has always been confusion. You know, it’s, ‘I never felt straight enough. I never felt gay enough. And I never felt woman enough. I never felt man enough.’ You know, I always felt like I was a little bit of everything.”
She carried on to say that she always led with masculinity because being a woman caused her to be met with so much disdain.
“Why did my gender have to define the power I have in the world? And why does my gender get to decide my sexuality?” she said as she choked back tears and reflected on her upbringing, where she wanted to be treated with more respect like the way people treated her father, not diminish her due to her gender.
“You know, since I was younger, I always questioned the boxes I was forced to be in and it starts with who you’re supposed to be as a child… I’m truly so grateful to be seen in this room because I know I’m surrounded by people who know without a doubt what it’s like to decide to be who you are in a world that tells you to be everything but yourself.”
The Nope actress recently welcomed her first child, Leodis Andrellton, with boyfriend Darius Jackson in February. The two have been together since 2021.
