Singer-songwriter Katy Perry was
honored Saturday for her LGBT rights advocacy at the Human Rights
Campaign's (HRC) 2017 Los Angeles Gala Dinner.
Perry received the group's National
Equality Award.
In accepting her award, Perry talked
about her 2008 hit I Kissed a Girl.
“Truth be told, I did more than
that,” Perry
told the crowd.
“I'm just a singer-songwriter
honestly. I speak my truth and I paint my fantasies into these
little bite-sized pop songs. In 2008, when that song came out, I
knew that I started a conversation that a lot of the world has been
curious enough to sing along to.”
“How was I going to reconcile that
with a gospel-singing girl raised in youth groups that were
pro-conversion camps? What I did know was that I was curious, and
even then I knew sexuality wasn't as black and white as this dress,”
Perry added.
Also honored was actress America
Ferrera.
(Related: America
Ferrera: My liberation bound up in the liberation of LGBT community.)