PFLAG celebrated the straight allies of LGBT folks at its Straight for Equality Gala Monday night at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. Allies from three arenas received honors: The Straight for Equality in Entertainment Award went to Jill Soloway, creator of the Amazon series Transparent; the Straight for Equality in Sports Award to New York Rangers goalie and antibullying activist Hendrik Lundqvist; and the Straight for Equality in the Workplace Award to Marriott International.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson, accepting his company's award, denounced Indiana's recently passed "license to discriminate" law. It is not just pure idiocy from a business perspective, and it is that," he said. "The notion that you can tell businesses somehow that they are free to discriminate against people based on who they are is madness."
Soloway, whose father has come out as a transgender woman, like the protagonist of her series, praised the power of PFLAG -- and of love. "It's really quite amazing what you can achieve through love," she said. "Love is the most powerful action in the world. I say the word 'love' as a verb ... feelings can come and go, but love the verb can be done no matter what. Love the verb changes people."
See photos from the event below. All images courtesy of PFLAG.
Clockwise from top left: Arne Sorenson; Jill Soloway; emcee Alec Mapa with SPARTA policy director Allyson Robinson, who presented Soloway with her award.
From left: Allyson Robinson with Diego M. Sanchez, PFLAG national director of policy; gala cochairs James White and Patsy Doerr.
Clockwise from top left: former Major League Baseball player Billy Bean, now MLB's ambassador for inclusion, who presented Henrik Lundqvist's award; Bean with PFLAG national executive director Jody Huckaby; Lundqvist.
