Cynthia Erivo obtained a prestigious honor on the 2025 GLAAD Media Awards.

The Depraved actress was the recipient of the Stephen F. Kolzak Award on the awards present on Thursday (March 26) on the Beverly Hilton Resort in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Cynthia, in Dior, was joined on the occasion by longtime companion Lena Waithe. The particular award is offered to a LGBTQ media skilled who has made a big distinction in elevating visibility and selling acceptance of LGBTQ individuals and points.

“It isn’t straightforward. None of it’s. Waking up and selecting to be your self, proclaiming an area belongs to you once you don’t really feel welcomed, educating individuals each day learn how to handle you and coping with the frustration of reteaching individuals a phrase that has been within the human vocabulary because the daybreak of time: they/them,” Cynthia mentioned throughout her speech.

Cynthia additionally made a Depraved and Wizard of Oz reference within the speech, connecting her factors to the yellow brick highway.

Preserve studying to search out out extra…

“Right here on this room, we now have all been the recipients of the present that’s the alternative to ‘be extra.’ I doubt that it has come straightforward to any of us, however extra, for some, the highway has not been one paved with yellow bricks, however as an alternative paved with bumps and potholes. Whichever highway you may have traveled, how lovely it’s that you just’ve had a highway to journey on in any respect. There are the invisible ones who’ve had no highway in any respect,” Cynthia mentioned.

Watch the complete speech under!