At the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Vanguard Awards gala, Miley Cyrus not only joined musician, Linda Perry on stage but also licked a signed, white grand piano on stage to be auctioned off. The piano which would be taken home by the winning bidder, was donated by Ruby Rose, the star from Orange is the New Black.
Cyrus attended the gala in a net top with fabric flowers placed along her bust and a semi sheer, floor length, pink skirt, paired with hot pink heels, a clam shaped clutch and the ever famous blonde dreadlocks.
Cyrus was awarded with the Vanguard Award in honour of her work with the LGBT+ community by the Center’s staff and members of her Happy Hippie Foundation.
During her speech Miley pointed out some cold hard facts, “There are more than 1.6 million runaway or homeless young people in the U.S. each year with 40 percent of homeless youth identifying as LGBTQ. And in just Hollywood where we are all sitting, royally with all of our food in front of us and all of these fancy ass clothes…something didn’t’ really feel quite right about it when we’re in a city where there are more than 6,100 homeless people under the age of 24 on the streets on any given day and more than one in four of these people have experienced hate crimes due to their race, sexual orientation or their gender identity.” She strived to urge others to make a change and to make that change, one needed to act upon them
“When beginning my foundation, I didn’t want it to be associated with darkness or bitterness to the injustice that we’re battling but the thrill and the eagerness of all of us in this room that we share for one day believing in a truly free world.” She said.
One sees the flare fierceness Cyrus has when it comes to the aspects of her life that she is passionate about, and where once ignorance used to stem, it’s good to see her learning, growing and understanding.
“… you know my life until that point, even I think I was subconsciously convinced that I had to label myself. Because everything in our life has to have a name. Everything in our life is something but I’m not a thing. We’re not a thing. We’re humans with feelings that change just like this weather…and I’m not alone.”
She goes on to explain of her understanding on the fluidity of sexual identity, “I was so moved when I first heard someone sitting beside me say, ‘Some days I wake up and I’m the masculine version of myself and some days I wake up and I’m the feminine version of myself.’ And that’s totally okay. And the LGBT Center had the key to the lock on my cage and they set me free.”
She concludes her speech with the ever powerful quote by Audrey Hepburn, “As you grow older, you will discover you have two hands, one for helping yourself and one for helping others.” We applaud you Miley, thank you for taking a stand and being a light in the lives of many others.