Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis took to the stage Thursday night to receive the Advocate of the Year Award from The Advocate at the Out100 celebration in Los Angeles. During her speech, Curtis had a specific message for the anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers and their supporters.
"Freedom is the goal. Freedom is the goal for all LGBTQ+IA human beings. Freedom is the goal," Curtis said. "And my love for both of my daughters is absolute. It has never wavered, and it will never waver. And as their mother, it is my job to help protect them."
She added: I hope to teach them that this is what you do when you're a parent. You suit up and you show up with your heart open, your arms outstretched and your aim true. And your job is to tell the haters to back the fuck off."
Related: Jamie Lee Curtis' Trans Daughter, Ruby Guest, Opens Up About Coming Out
The Everything Everywhere All at Once star also spoke about her recent controversy over the Israel-Hamas War. “I am also human and therefore flawed and contradictory, and I make mistakes, and I try to own them in this time of great conflict around the world, where we are all trying to find our individual center of care and compassion and outreach so we can use our voices amidst the cacophony of hate that is surrounding us,” she said.
She concluded by taking a dig at the state of LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S. and thanking the other advocates in the room.
"I pray that homophobia and transphobia that is being championed in the name of religion by the right is exposed and silenced as wrong," Curtis said, "by the love of humanity that is the center of our gay and our trans community."
