Cynthia Nixon Praises Her LGBTQ Heroes While Accepting Out 100 Award

Following an introduction from activist DeRay Mckesson, Cynthia Nixon delivered a rousing speech to a crowd that included activist Garrett Clayton, Bianca Del Rio, and Pose's Billy Porter, Indya Moore, and Dominique Jackson. The star of Sex and the City praised her LGBTQ heroes while accepting Out's Hero of the Year award at the Out 100 in West Hollywood Thursday.

The actress and activist who took on incumbent Andrew Cuomo in the New York Democratic gubernatorial primary spoke of her heroes in the community and the necessity of using our voices to fight the Trump administration. She citedPorter, who recently penned a heartrending story of the sexual abuse he suffered that ran on Out.

"Billy is brave. First he told the truth about what happened to himself, then he told it to those that he trusted, and then he told it to the rest of the world," Nixon said. "And that's what we all need to be doing with Donald Trump in the White House. We need to be telling our truth in big ways. The good news is that as queer people, this is a muscle we've been consciously building for quite a while now."

Nixon went on to discuss why she attempted to unseat Cuomo and to praise not only the rainbow wave and historic firsts that resulted in more than 150 LGBTQ people being elected to office during the midterms last week but also the inroads made by women and people of color.

"We the people are learning that we can no longer leave our democracy in the hands of white male cisgender career politicians and their corporate donors and expect them to work for all of us," Nixon laid down in her speech to cheers from the crowd.

"More and more, those of us who have been marginalized are identifying not just the problems but the solutions as well," she added. "The stone the builders rejected is becoming the cornerstone. We are quite simply the heroes that we have been waiting for."