In accepting an award on Saturday for
her LGBT activism, Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway said
that she loves the LGBT community for its “freedom.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
presented Hathaway with its National Equality Award at its 22nd
annual national dinner at the Washington Convention Center.
“What I love most about this
community is the way you own the alphabet,” Hathaway joked. “For
real, what I love about this community is the freedom. The freedom
that comes with being yourself. All of yourself. I love the energy,
the activism, the generosity, the light, the shade, the fun. I love
the dignity that accompanies self acceptance.”
“This community is a community of
optimists. This community has transformed a world full of stark,
black and white morality into one of rainbow prismatic lustrous
freedom,” she said later in her acceptance speech.
Hathaway added that the LGBT community
has “arrived” because it knows that equality is not a destination
but a choice.
“Love is love, and equality just is,”
she said. “You taught me that. You teach us all. So, let me say:
for everyone whose lives you have made better, which is to say for
every one, thank you.”
Hathaway has been a vocal supporter of
LGBT rights. She was among the dozens of actors and film studios in
2016 to sign an HRC-led petition calling on Georgia Governor Nathan
Deal, a Republican, to veto a controversial “religious freedom”
bill that critics said would have allowed businesses to discriminate
against the LGBT community. Deal vetoed the legislation.
(Related: Hollywood
stars, studios join campaign calling on Georgia governor to veto
anti-gay law.)
Also appearing at Saturday's event were
former Vice President Joe Biden and Olympian Adam Rippon.
(Related: At
HRC dinner, Joe Biden attacks Trump's LGBT record.)