Wicked star Cynthia Erivo was celebrated at the 2025 GLAAD Media Awards, delivering a speech that implied life was tough when people don’t affirm her chosen pronouns.
Erivo, who identifies as bisexual, used her platform to deliver an impassioned speech about authenticity and courage. “I have spoken about being your whole self and your true self. I speak about the prizes that come from being you against the odds… But rarely do I acknowledge how hard it can be. So I thought that I would make some room for those of us who are trying to find the courage to exist as we want, because I think this is the space to do that.”
Acknowledging the difficulties of living openly as a queer person, Erivo emphasized that it takes resilience to show up every day as one’s true self.
“It isn’t easy,” she shared, “to proclaim a space belongs to you when you don’t feel welcomed, to teach people daily how to address you, and to deal with the frustration of reteaching people a word that has been in the human vocabulary since the dawn of time: they/them.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: No one has to use someone’s preferred pronouns. It’s not rooted in reality. People can do whatever they want, but please stop trying to convince the rest of us to go along with the story.