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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Wanda Sykes delivers epic 26-minute acceptance speech, mentions every | |
other winner at event and speaks up for trans people | |
By Dan Heching, CNN | |
Updated: | |
7:53 PM EDT, Sat June 7, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
closed the night in typical bombastic and hilarious fashion at the | |
Critics Choice Association‘s Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & | |
Television on Friday night in Los Angeles, delivering an impromptu | |
speech that ran the gamut from community organizing to admitting she | |
hasn’t seen the Amazon Prime show “Etoile.” | |
Sykes was awarded the last trophy of the evening, for career | |
achievement, wrapping a show that saw other LGBTQ-identifying stars | |
acknowledged for their work over the past year, including Nathan Lee | |
Graham from “Mid-Century Modern” and the cast of “.” | |
As Sykes began her speech, she held onto one of the cards that was on | |
every table at the event, listing the evening’s winners. She joked | |
that she should have stopped drinking by the time Liv Hewson – who | |
was awarded a rising star statuette for their work on | |
“Yellowjackets” toward the middle of the evening – came onstage. | |
Admitting she had not written a prepared speech – “I didn’t know | |
it was going to be this big of a deal,” she quipped – Sykes then | |
proceeded to go down the list of winners and mention every single one, | |
including her “Other Two” costar Gideon Glick, who was recognized | |
for his supporting work on “Etoile” (Glick’s win was bittersweet; | |
while it was his birthday and the entire room broke out into a | |
rendition of “Happy Birthday” for him, news broke mere hours before | |
the award show began that ). | |
“I didn’t watch the show,” Sykes jokingly admitted on stage after | |
talking about how much she loved Glick’s speech earlier, in which he | |
reminisced about his mother’s acceptance of him when he came out at | |
12 and some of the struggles he later faced as a working LGBTQ+ actor. | |
Sykes – who was recognized for her work in standup and as a film and | |
television actor – also called out CCA award-winners Megan Stalter of | |
“” and “Saturday Night Live” cast member , both of whom she | |
thanked for being unapologetically, and hilariously, themselves. | |
About Sasheer Zamata – who won a breakthrough performance award for | |
her work on “Agatha All Along” and mentioned during her speech that | |
she came out as queer last year – Sykes joked that she knew the was | |
queer before Zamata did. | |
Toward the end of her speech, Sykes addressed the reality TV award | |
winners of the night, the Season 17 drag queens of “RuPaul’s Drag | |
Race,” calling the show a “staple.” | |
“Y’all were out there making noise for us before all of this,” | |
Sykes said, gesturing to the event, before adding, “Drag queens have | |
always been .” | |
Finally, Sykes shouted out , who had been awarded the groundbreaker | |
award just before her, joking that the “the LGBTQ+ community is such | |
fire, that we got a new member, we got Niecy!” She also thanked | |
Nash-Betts’ wife Jessica Betts “for doing your job.” (Nash-Betts | |
and Betts .) | |
To conclude her speech, Sykes addressed the LGBTQ+ community as a | |
whole, but also said that protecting the trans segment of the community | |
is “our fight,” since “they are right now.” | |
“We just got to love hard. So that means you gotta be proud, you | |
gotta be loud, we have to protect our trans brothers and sisters,” | |
she said. “Thats our next movement.” | |
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