Lena Waithe's GLAAD Acceptance Speech Calls for Unity in the LGBTQ Community

Accepting the GLAAD Award for Oustanding Individual Episode at this year's ceremony for Master of None, Lena Waithe gave an empowering speech calling for unity within the LGBTQ community.

"A lot of people ask me why I say I'm queer," Waithe said. "I say that because I think it's a big umbrella. I don't want to separate myself from my trans family, my non-binary, bisexual... I feel like sometimes we can be a little segregated. You know what I mean? You have the wealthy gays over here, the gays on a budget over there... We need to be united."

Related | OUT 100: Lena Waithe, Artist of the Year

Waithe's "Thanksgiving" episode within Aziz Ansari's hit Netflix show saw her come out to her mother, played by Angela Bassett--a rare depiction of an LGBTQ story in mainstream media executed thoughtfully, with equal parts emotional depth and humor.

"Laverne Cox's struggle may look different than mine, but the pain we feel is the same," Waithe continued. "Someone who may be asexual may have a different journey than mine, but we have a similar life. There's things that we have in common. And at the end of the day, we're already othered. So why should we other ourselves any more than we already are? We have to support each other, we have to talk to each other, we have to educate each other about our own individual journeys. Because at the end of the day, we all we got."

Waithe was presented with her award by the legendary Halle Berry. Britney Spears was honored at this year's GLAAD awards in Beverly Hills as the 2018 Vanguard Award recipient. The ceremony will air on Logo at 8PM EST on Wednesday, April 18.