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“My liberation is bound up in the liberation of my LGBTQ brothers and sisters.”
The crowd at the Human Rights Campaign Los Angeles gala this Saturday leapt to their feet as America Ferrera accepted this year's Ally for Equality Award.
The Superstore and Ugly Betty actress delivered an acceptance speech that moved the room, calling for a more intersectional approach to not just LGBT, but human, rights.
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"Anything I've ever done on behalf of the LGBTQ community, I did in service to myself," she said. "Anything I ever did for the rights of this community I did because I believe -- with every fiber of my being -- that my liberation is bound up in the liberation of my LGBTQ brothers and sisters, and in the liberation of my black brothers and sisters, and in the liberation of immigrants, and refugees, and Muslims, and Sikhs, and women all over the world, and the incarcerated, and the criminalized, and the uneducated, and the poor, and the hungry, and, and, and, and, and."
Ferrera, who also delivered a speech in January at the Women's March on Washington, reassured the audience that, despite the current harsh political climate, LGBTQ people and allies could make a difference.
"Too often we have to spend so many years unlearning what culture has taught us about who we are or ought to be, but It doesn't have to be that way. We can change that," she said. "Every single one of us we can leave the next generation with a better reflection of their innate worth and their inherent power simply by claiming and living in our own power."
