After making her first public appearance at the GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday, Lilly Wachowski took the stage to speak about her own coming out story and GLAAD’s role in the LGBTQ community.
Winning best drama series for Sense8, she spoke about her recent announcement, thanking the “fabulous people at GLAAD” for their help, “as well as the extremely sensitive and courteous people at the Daily Mail. Thanks guys,” she sarcastically added to laughter from the crowd.
Wachowski came out out as transgender last month in a heartfelt statement to Chicago’s Windy City Times. Wachowski revealed in her statement that she felt pushed to come out after being pressured by media outlets for her story, eventually being approached at home by a reporter from the Daily Mail who was prepared to run with the story. Wachowski’s sister Lana came out as transgender in 2012.
“My sister likes to joke, you can’t write this s–t,” she said on stage. “Where do we find the courage to break free of the boxes of our lives, to transcend and overcome tragedy? The monsters within and the violence we do to ourselves when we are too afraid to be who we really are.”
“And while the ideas of identity and transformation are components of our work, the bedrock that all ideas rest upon is love. Love is a crucial thing for transgender people, it’s a tether.”
Introduced to the stage by Keke Palmer, Wachowski’s speech started out as a prepared statement until she got personal about her own story. “When faced with a rather simple proposition of whether you’re unlovable, our imagination falters,” she said. “Too many of us end up on the wrong side of the existential question of love or oblivion. And so we ring that bell. Not just for everyone else’s sake but our own.”
Wachowski then thanked her sister Lana for the win, her parents who attended the awards show, as well as Netflix, the cast and crew, and “lastly the fearless and spectacular eight.”
“Now get out there and go love with all your f—ing might!”
Lilly Wachowski accepting best drama series for @sense8: Go out there, love with all your f—ing might.#glaadawards pic.twitter.com/LPDzK61zSc
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) April 3, 2016
