This summer, Sheryl Lee Ralph took to social media to school “people of a certain age” about respecting preferred pronouns.
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“Some of the things you used to do and say when you were young, they’re not going to work right now, OK?” Ralph said in an Instagram video posted by The Black Media. “These children right about now, they want to be called by their name. They want to be respected with their pronouns.”
It was a small moment in Ralph’s long history of LGBTQ+ allyship. Since the beginning of her now legendary career, the indomitable star of stage and screen has also been a fiercely outspoken advocate for queer people and other marginalized communities — which is why we're delighted to honor her as our 2024 Advocate of the Year.
“In my lifetime … I’ve been colored, Negro, Black, African American,” Ralph explains about why she decided to speak on the topic. “I mean, there have been so many names to try to figure out what to call people (who are descendants) from the African continent in America and around the world that I understood it in many ways — how young people are saying, ‘Look, things are changing once again.’ And so what if they don't look like what you think they should look like? Just try and call people by their name, nobody likes being called out of their name.”
The Emmy-winning star of Abbott Elementary, which incidentally features an array of queer characters, has never shied away from using her platform to educate others and create awareness around certain issues. But Ralph’s LGBTQ+ allyship began long before today’s conversations around pronouns and gender identity. It truly started at the dawn of her career in showbiz — which happened to coincide with the onset of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s.
Looking back now, she says even then she recognized the intersectionality of such issues, understanding that factors like racism, homophobia, and sexism have always been interlinked in many ways. Having grown up in the church, Ralph says she was also initially shocked to see the nation’s — especially religious people’s — reaction to the HIV epidemic.
“It was a very deep learning curve for me,” she recalls. “I [was] the good little church girl … and when I saw people’s inhumanity to people, maybe I was naïve, it was just shocking to me. Especially when some of them were avowed Christians, avowed spiritual people, higher-thinking people, I just thought it was just such base behavior. And then as the crisis was growing and starting to come together within the community, how racism played a part in it, how people were so quick to ignore the plight of dark people.”
Before Ralph’s Emmy-winning run on Abbott Elementary, the multi-talented singer, actress, and producer achieved an amazing career on stage and screen. After her first big break in the 1977 film A Piece of the Action, she made her Broadway debut in 1981, originating the iconic Deena Jones in Dreamgirls (a role that earned Ralph a Tony nomination and was later played by Beyoncé in the 2006 film version). Since then, Ralph has literally never stopped working and has appeared in dozens of movies, TV shows, and stage productions, including Sister Act 2, Moesha, Barbershop, and To Sleep With Anger.
It was during the early Broadway days of her career that Ralph says she was first confronted with the dark reality of the HIV epidemic, as she began to lose countless friends and colleagues. But the young actress quickly worked to turn tragedy into change at a time when many others in the spotlight weren’t willing to do so. In 1990 she founded the DIVA Foundation, which raises funds for HIV causes, especially ones focused on the Black community and women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations like Women Alive, Caring for Babies With AIDS, Minority AIDS Project, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the Black AIDS Institute. In 2022, she coproduced a documentary called Unexpected, which told stories of young Black women affected by HIV in the South.
Easton Schirra
Ralph says she has always wanted to bring awareness to the fact that people from all walks of life can be affected by HIV/AIDS, not just gay and bi men.
“We were already hearing the reports about what was going on in South Africa and how many women were suffering … it’s not just gay, it’s human,” she says. “Look, it’s men and women, it has the possibility to be a heterosexual problem.”
In October, Ralph was honored by GLSEN, an organization dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ youth, with its Champion Award for her years of allyship.
“Ralph’s leadership serves as a beacon of hope for LGBTQ+ youth facing harmful discrimination and legislation across the country now more than ever,” GLSEN stated in a press release.
Easton Schirra
When we spoke with Ralph — whose husband of 20 years, Vincent Hughes, is currently a Pennsylvania state senator — it was merely days before the presidential election. While the outcome is certainly not what Ralph and most in our community had hoped for, the impassioned words of wisdom she had to share remain inspiring.
“Listen, when somebody can stand up and say that January 6th was a ‘lovefest’ for our country, something sick is going on,” Ralph says. “And when you can take hatred and wrap it up in a blue-eyed package of youth and hope for future hatred, oh my God, who are we?”
However, in spite of these difficult times we now find ourselves in, Ralph assures that there are still good people out there fighting day in and day out for the rights and lives of others.
“Ultimately, they're human beings,” she says of those working in politics. “I look at my husband's [work as a state senator] and I think about the things that he does for the people he represents … the impact that will be made on their communities for generations to come was because somebody was there that cared.”
Photographer Easton Schirra@eastonschirra
Photographer's Assistant Alex Polcyn@apzander
Stylist Ivy Coco Maurice@ivycoco23
Stylist’s Assistant Coco Emery@kinda.coco
Makeup Saisha Beecham@saishabeecham with @theonlyagency
Hair Ray Christopher@hair4kicks with @thewallgroup
Videographer Robert Marrero@itsrobertmarrero
Shot on location at Edge LA @edge_studios
