'A duty and an honor': Madonna reflects on decades of LGBTQ activism

[steel 715]

                           

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Madonna, a pioneer for gay rights, accepted the advocate for change award at the 2019 GLAAD media awards, with a rousing speech that went from playful to emotional, bringing the audience to its feet. Madonna is the first woman and the second person to ever be receive this award. Logo TV will air the awards ceremony on the 12th of May.

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Full write-up available below:

Spoiler

While she’s best known for her legendary entertainment career, Madonna was celebrated on Saturday not for her musical accomplishments, but for her decades of activism on behalf of the LGBTQ community — from the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis to present-day anti-gay political policies.

“No single ally has been a better friend or had a bigger impact on acceptance for the LGBTQ community than Madonna,” CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said in his introductory remarks at the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, where the pop icon was honored with the Advocate for Change Award.

At the height of the evening, amid a packed, cheering midtown Manhattan ballroom, Madonna took the stage to and delivered an emotional acceptance speech.

“Fighting for all marginalized people is a duty and an honor I could not turn my back on nor will I ever,” she told the primarily LGBTQ audience.

She dedicated a significant portion of her heartfelt speech to the early days of HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, which marked a time of painful loss for her personally and the beginning of her LGBTQ advocacy.

“The AIDS epidemic, the plague that moved in like a black cloud in New York City, and in the blink of an eye,” she snapped her fingers, “took out all of my friends.”

“I remember the pandemonium and the fear, and people trying all kinds of drugs that didn’t work,” she continued. “And doing my own drug runs to Mexico for my friends to buy experimental medicines that were supposed help cure, but ended up only killing them faster.”

She recalled visits to sick friends in the ‘80s at St. Vincent’s Hospital, ground zero for New York City’s AIDs epidemic.

“It felt like I had entered a concentration camp,” she said. “Emaciated bodies in every bed, and all these people who had been abandoned by their families and their friends and their loved ones. I decided to defy the universe and get into every bed and put my arms around as many humans as I could and make them feel loved — and human.”

She wished her late friend, the artist Keith Haring, a happy 51st birthday. Haring died in 1990 at the age of 31 from an AIDS-related illness. She also told the story of her first dance teacher and mentor, Christopher Flynn. He was the first gay man she had ever met, and he, too, succumbed to AIDS in 1990.

“He was my ballet teacher in high school, and he was the first person that believed in me,” she said, “that made me feel special as a dancer, as an artist and as a human being. I know this sounds trivial and superficial, but he was the first man to tell me that I was beautiful.”

During her approximately 15-minute speech, Madonna also spoke about her humanitarian efforts in Africa, the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, visiting her first gay club in downtown Detroit and her own feelings of being an outsider.

In closing, she said, “As soon as you really understand what it means to love, you understand what it takes to become a human being, and that it is every human’s duty to fight, to advocate, to do whatever we can and whatever it takes.”

Following her on-stage remarks, NBC News asked Madonna what or whom she is most focused on fighting against now. After a long pause, she looked down toward the ground, sighed, and then held her head high and said, “Sexism, ageism, people discriminating against me because I am a strong independent female who has chosen an unconventional life and has made an unconventional family.”

“The fact that I continue to be adventurous and mischievous and creative, it is almost like a crime to a lot of people. Like, how dare you? And why do you keep doing it?” she explained. “I am 100 percent sure people wouldn’t say that to me if I was a man. That is a big part of my fight now.”

Madonna is only the second recipient of GLAAD’s Advocate for Change Award. The first was former President Bill Clinton in 2013. He was honored, according to GLAAD, “for his advocacy work to overturn the anti-LGBTQ Defense of Marriage Act and advance marriage equality nationwide.”

In a statement shared with NBC News following Saturday’s ceremony, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said Madonna “always has and always will be the LGBTQ community’s greatest ally.”

“From the HIV crisis to international LGBTQ issues, she fearlessly pushes for a world where LGBTQ people are accepted,” Ellis stated. “Her music and art have been life-saving outlets for LGBTQ people over the years and her affirming words and actions have changed countless hearts and minds.”

Madonna will release her 14th studio album, titled “Madame X,” globally on June 14. She released a single from the album, “I Rise,” on Friday, which she said she wrote “as a way of giving a voice to all marginalized people who feel they don’t have the opportunity to speak their mind.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/duty-honor-madonna-reflects-decades-lgbtq-activism-n1002166

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Amateur recording of introductions from Anderson Cooper, Mikii Blanco, and Rosie O'Donnell, followed by Madonna's full speech available here:

 

[steel 715]

As a long-time Madonna fan, it was a truly special moment to see her receive this award. It is amazing to see her being honoured for all her dedication, devotion, and commitment to LGBTQ rights, dating to the start of her career, and during a time when doing so threatened her and her future.

The stories she shared in her speech of making trips to Mexico to get medication for her friends who were dying of AIDS, when the government and doctors were unwilling to do anything to help, were just heartbreaking. Hearing her talk about all the friends she lost during the epidemic... Hearing her talk about the visits she did to the hospital in NY just to hug AIDS patients who had no one there with them, just to hug them and say they were loved... 😭

Her dedication to the LGBT community has been something always present in her, which marked her history, her career, her music, and a cause which she has made almost a mission, always using her fame and spotlight for the better. A true pionieer of LGBTQ rights -- one that did the talk and walked the walk, and continues to do so to this day.

For this, for everything she stands for, for everything she did for me as a queer person struggling with my identity, through her art, her music and creativity, I will never stop loving this woman. 

[River 91,007]

Really beautiful moment, she really deserves it!!!

[FentyGa 14,340]

I was just reading up on the MDNA tour and what hapened in Russia

Obviously there's far more than that, but that's just what I came across today

[Illuminati Freak 2,432]

If you didn't live thru the 80's & 90's you will never truly understand the power of Madonna and what she truly represents for a generation of gay men. The strength she gave us during the darkness in a time of fear during the HIV crisis and hers was a powerful voice in a time of extreme homophobia. The willingness to persevere, to not be afraid to be ourselves. Madonna wasn't afraid to stand up for us when nobody else would. She pushed boundaries and broke down barriers for all minorities. She embraced the freaks, told us to express ourselves and use sexuality as a gift. She lead the revolution with the attitude of "This is who I am, 🖕🏻LIKE IT, OR NOT, OK??🖕🏻". And yet to this day her message still is telling us to "Rise, rise up above it all!" I love Gaga and I get that's a lot of her same message but Madonna was the pioneer she paved the way for every female poster that came after her. She donated millions of dollars to AMFAR back then which was extremely critical. That organization went on to create the first retroviral therapy and AIDS cocktails. Madonna didn't just figuratively save lives. She literally did. She and others like Elizabeth Taylor brought all gay men out of that horror into the light of hope. 

[PunkTheFunk 121,511]

Say what you want about her (and god knows I have) but she really helped pave the way for us all

[RoverLoader 1,254]

Anyone here NOT seen "truth or Dare" or "in bed With Madonna" as it was called in other markets?

[DaftFameMonster 2,527]

As someone who has only just started stanning Madonna within the past year, I'm really appreciating all the love this forum  has had for Madonna of late. New Madonna threads everyday! I guess it just helps when you're part of an already existing community that also shares interests in other  people/topics. I never knew she would have such a profound impact on me when I started listening to Ray Of Light by my friend's request. It is now my favorite album of all time. 

[Musicisfreedom 5,837]

I love her so much. She truly is deserving of this, and I don't care what anyone of you have to say against it. She has done so much for this community, and continues to stand up for us and fight for our rights as human beings. Not only that, but she personally has helped me so much with accepting myself as gay, through both her music and what she has to say outside of it. Thank you Madonna, you are the greatest,

[McYves 1,612]

The Queen deserves this and everything. 

[PunkTheFunk 121,511]

Madonna's AIDS activism back in 1989 for anyone who's interested

 

[androiduser 7,113]

so proud of all Madonna's activism and achievements in her fight for the LGBTQ community and her enormous support in the fight against AIDS and the prejudice it brings. A huge thank you to a wonderful activist and icon, and an endless source of inspiration to countless LGBTQ fans!

[babyboo 965]

But the real question is.. wtf is mdna?

[Bat 6,161]

We should all be proud of such an icon paving the way for us millennials gays sipping iced coffee all day and watching RuPaul.

 

 

[RudraCNG 13,413]

What a magnificent and truly inspiring speech. She has always been one of the greatest LGTB supporters, and too many times she risked her career for it, so this is an absolutely well-deserved award.

P.S.: and she looked gorgeous