Anderson Cooper Receives The Vito Russo Award From Madonna At The Glaad Awards

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[Anderson Cooper Receives The Vito Russo Award From Madonna At The Glaad Awards]

[Madonna]
Please come and get your fourth GLAAD Award, your fourth Vito Russo award, and let me have a reason to grab your ass. (Well done) Oh go on.

[Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967)] Source: LYBIO.net
I just kissed Madonna.

[Madonna]
Wait, wait, wait. Here, I’ll leave you along with your idol.

[Anderson Cooper]
All right, thank you.

[Madonna]
Sure. Shit, I’m just, I’m leaving the stage.

[Anderson Cooper] Source: LYBIO.net
That’s all right. You can stay up here all day long. Thank you very much. Do I have a lipstick on me from Madonna? Do I have lipstick from Madonna on me? I do? Oh, no, anyway, oh yeah, well, it’s the first, kissing a woman that is.

First of all, do you know what it’s like trying to be the follow-up act to Madonna, please sit down everyone, it is not easy.

I want to thank Madonna for being here tonight for her entire career. For her entire career, she has been outspoken in support of gay/lesbian bisexual transgender people, not just in this country, but around the world.

[Anderson Cooper] Source: LYBIO.net
And she is an extraordinary ally, and I’m so thankful for her artistry and for her friendship. I very much appreciate this recognition tonight, and your kind reception, it really means a great deal to me. To receive an award named after Vito Russo is an incredible honor. The truth is though, I know that I’m not worthy of it at all.

I read The Celluloid Closet when I was in high school, and it opened my eyes to the way that movies and the media for generations portrayed us, and how those unfair and inaccurate portrayals affected us all. Vito Russo was a hero, a hero as was Harry Hay, and Frank Kameny, Audre Lorde, Sylvia Rivera, a hero as is Larry Kramer and Peter Staley who is sitting right here, and I’m very happy that Peter is here tonight, a hero as was Randy Shilts and Spencer Cox who sadly are not here tonight.

I know that, I am only here tonight because I’ve benefited from what they and so many others have done, what they have spoken up for, stood up for, been arrested and fired for, been beaten and bloodied and bruised for.

[Anderson Cooper] Source: LYBIO.net
I’m only here because of what others have done so much more than I will ever be able to do. As you saw on the video, I started as a combat reporter when I was in my early 20s. I actually couldn’t get an entry level job in TV news.

So I had a friend make a fake press pass for me, and I borrowed a camera, and I decided to start going to wars by myself. And I went into Somalia, the height of a terrible famine in 1992, and that was really the first big story I reported on.

And my first day there, I was in a town called Baidoa and there were about 100 people dying everyday in Baidoa, about 1000 dying in Somalia everyday. And I remember my first day seeing a woman and a man, mother and a father, using a small kettle of water to wash the body of their son who died while I was standing there.

He was just five years old, he was their last child; they had already watched three of their other children die. And I remember seeing his skeletal body placed in a shallow grave and a small mount of sand was all that marked that spot. And it was the mount of sand that very quickly was worn down by the wind until there was no sign of a grave at all. There was no sign that this little boy had ever even existed, his parents had no photos of him.

And I tell you this, because it was in that moment that I really understood the value and the importance of reporting. The importance of telling people stories, bearing witness to the lives that they lived, bearing witness to their heartaches and their hopes, bearing witness to their triumphs and their tragedies. As a gay person, it’s important for you to remember that all of us come from a community whose stories are for too long been forgotten or ignored.

[Anderson Cooper] Source: LYBIO.net
A community whose lives are for too long been ridiculed or misrepresented. A community that in spite of all that is found, in spite of all that, a community that in spite of all that has found ways to love and to laugh and to care for one another.

A community that has found ways to stand tall and stand up and make ourselves visible. I know that I’m only able to be on this stage because of generations of gay people who have come before, and some of their names are known, but so many more have lived and died in silence.

Their successes and their sacrifices never recognized in the journals of the day or the history of our times. Their lives never even acknowledged, their love hidden in the shadows, hands supportively held in the darkness.

I’ve had so many blessings in my life, and being gay is certainly one of the greatest blessings. It has allowed me to love and to be loved, it’s helped to open my head and open my heart in ways that I could never have predicted.

[Anderson Cooper] Source: LYBIO.net
The ability to love one another, the ability to love another person is in my opinion one of god’s greatest gifts, and I thank god everyday for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my life, my family and my friends, my partner Benjamin, thank you very much, and thank you for being here, thank you.

Anderson Cooper Receives The Vito Russo Award From Madonna At The Glaad Awards. I know that I’m only able to be on this stage because of generations of gay people who have come before, and some of their names are known, but so many more have lived and died in silence. Complete Video Transcript, Dialogue, Quotes, Words And Text.