Scandal star Kerry Washington gives fiery pro-LGBT speech tearing into Donald Trump
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Scandal star Kerry Washington has cut Donald Trump to pieces in a fiery speech.
Washington, who was picking up her GLSEN Inspiration Award, told the crowd that LGBT people in the US are “living through a horrific dream.
“It is a communal nightmare.”
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And the Golden Globe-nominated actress put the blame for this hellscape squarely on Trump’s shoulders.
“The flames of terror and exclusion are being ignited by some of our most powerful leaders,” she said.
“These people who have been entrusted with the protection of our rights, the rights of all of us, of We The People, have chosen instead to traffic in hate.
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“We’ve gone from a White House lit in all the colours of pride, to a White House that literally preaches division and discrimination.”
She added that “the stakes are high and fear is rampant.”
The Trump administration has rolled back civil rights protections for transgender employees and gone to court to defend its plans to ban transgender people from the military.
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Last week, Trump became the first president to address the conference of a recognised anti-LGBT hate group.
Over the weekend, he again praised an extreme pastor who claims gay people are likely to sexually abuse children.
And last month, he threw his support behind disgraced homophobe Roy Moore – who has said that “homosexual conduct should be illegal” – in his bid for the US Senate.
Washington has inspired LGBT crowds before, having told the 2015 GLAAD Awards that “as long as anyone, anywhere is being made to feel less human…we are all vulnerable.”
And back in 2013, she said gay rumours had “never bothered me, as it is not offensive.”
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During her speech last night, which was alternately eviscerating and hopeful, the 40-year-old said that “so many of us in so many disparate communities [feel] more vulnerable than ever before.”
The solution for this atmosphere of hate and division, she said, was the next generation.
“Children are not born to be molded and perfected by their parents, she told the crowd.
“Children are born to us because we need to grow and be made more perfect than them.
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“What I’m saying to the young people here tonight is – don’t get it twisted – we don’t raise you. You raise us.”
She added: “You are inspiring all of us to make the changes we need to make in order for the world to be a world that is deserving of your beauty, and your power, and your possibility.”
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To uproarious applause, Washington told the children: “You are our truest leaders. You point us out of this nightmare, and toward that more perfect union.
“And with your leadership, tonight more than ever before, I know that we will get there. So we look to you, and we love you, and we are grateful.”
Watch Kerry’s full speech below:
