LGBT
- Madonna gives emotional speech about her experiences with the
LGBTQ community
Madonna
gave the speech after accepting the Advocate for
Change Award from GLAAD
In
an acceptance speech for a GLAAD award, Madonna
has honoured the friends she lost to AIDS and
spoken about how the LGBTQ community made
her feel accepted. She was being honoured for
accelerating the acceptance of the LGBTQ community
in pop culture and for her work in raising
awareness for HIV / AIDS.
Madonna
started her speech by explaining why she fought so
hard for LGBTQ equality.
“Why
have I always fought for change? That’s a hard
question to answer,” she said. “It’s
like trying to explain the importance of reading
or the need to love. Growing up I always felt like
an outsider, like I didn’t fit in. It wasn’t
because I didn’t shave under my armpits, I just
didn’t fit in.”
She
explained how it was gay man who first helped her
to feel accepted. “The first gay man I ever met
was named Christopher Flynn,” she said.
“He
was my ballet teacher in high school and he was
the first person that believed in me, 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 I
was beautiful.”