Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Brittney and Cherelle Griner were all honored on the ACLU of Southern California’s Bill of Rights Awards on Sunday, in an evening that focused heavily on Donald Trump‘s election win and the long run fight for civil rights.
Ruffalo, who campaigned heavily for Kamala Harris and is amongst Hollywood’s most outspoken activists, took the stage on the Beverly Hilton and admitted to the group, “We got our asses kicked. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but sometimes you’ve gotten to spend just a little time in bed before it happens. It was hard to return here, truthfully.”
“The proven fact that we’re here says an amazing deal about what all of us care about on this life, and I need to understand you all in your values and the grief and the fear that you just most acutely could also be feeling as well, because I do know I’m,” the star continued. “We suffered an amazing loss, it’s a loss that touches deeply on a lot of what we’ve worked for and we’ve hoped for and dreamed of for such a protracted time now.” He then asked everyone within the room to face to offer their neighbor a hug and an ‘I really like you.’
During his 20-minute speech, Ruffalo emphasized that liberal activists are “not recent to this, we all know what we’d like to do, and we’re those to do it. We all know learn how to do it, we’ve already been doing it, and now we just commit more deeply to one another and be open to those recent people who find themselves coming to affix us.” He also encouraged compassion over snark and resisting further isolation, saying that “those that wish to do us harm, we’re related to them too, they usually’re related to us. We’re all a part of that family, they’ve just gone unsuitable and forgotten who they’re.”
He concluded, “I’ve felt demoralization and despair so persistently along the road of all of this, and the message I keep getting is in the event you’re losing hope, you’re not giving enough and also you’re not doing enough. Motion is the very thing that pushes back despair.”
Steele — the star of Netflix doc Will & Harper, a former head author at Saturday Night Live who got here out as a trans woman in 2021 — echoed in her speech that although she is a comedy author, “this week hasn’t been especially funny.”
Steele explained how over the previous few days as she’s gone about her life, she’s questioned, “‘Who’re these people and may I trust them? What do they really consider me?’ I believe we’ve all been knocked off just a little bit; what do Americans consider all of us?”
“I used to be nervous again. That scary, alienating feeling I fought so hard to beat was creeping back in,” she continued. “But that is so not about me. This scary feeling is back for thus many across this country without the good thing about white privilege, they usually have real reason to be afraid. Their healthcare is under attack; their families, their doctors, their support systems, their schools, their very identity is under attack, and the attackers have just been emboldened.”
Yet Steele encouraged the group that as a substitute of hiding or getting indignant, the more powerful move is to point out support and like to the trans community, as she added, “I promise I’ll regain my confidence. I’ll use my quarter-hour of fame to point out that I care.”
Kerry Washington, Zoe Saldaña, Ke Huy Quan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Will & Harper director Josh Greenbaum were also amongst the celebs who took part within the event, which serves as a serious fundraiser for ACLU SoCal’s fights for freedom.
