At the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York, Olympian Adam Rippon and new A Little Late host Lilly Singh presented Samantha Bee with the award for Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode for the Full Frontal with Samantha Bee episode, “Trans Rights Under Attack.”

Bee’s funny but poignant speech included: “All people deserve equal rights, whether it’s the right to use a bathroom in North Carolina, the right of a gay couple to buy a wedding cake in Colorado, or the right of the Vice President to be married to a woman who is both his wife and his mother.” Bee ended her speech saying, “Thank you for this award and I pledge to never let Mike Pence touch it.”

Samantha Bee also invited show writer Nicole Silverberg to share a few words, in which she highlighted the importance of speaking about trans issues on television: “There is a legacy of discrimination. Trans people experience disproportionate homelessness, lack of health care, sexual violence. The lifespan for a black trans women is 35 years old. And I am just so glad that we get to speak about this on television.” She continued, “We also have a responsibility to infuse these older industries in media with trans creativity.” 

Former Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee’s late-night and news satire program Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, is a progressive and Emmy award winning show on TBS. With a diverse writing team (about half female and 30% non-white) Bee uses her platform to address social issues in a funny, yet poignant manner.

In the episode, “Trans Rights Under Attack,” Bee recounts Donald Trump’s measures to strip away the rights of the trans community, and sheds a light on all of the ways in which this administration has rolled back trans rights across the board. Bee also uses the segment to explain the difference between sex and gender, Bee ends her segment with a call-to-action, asking her audience to stand with trans people in the face of adversity.

The other nominees in this category included “Mike Pence and ‘A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo'” from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “NRA Problems, Chicken Bone Problems, Birmingham Problems” from Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, “Troye Sivan Hopes ‘Boy Erased’ Reaches All Parents” from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and “Valedictorian Seth Owen” from The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York were filled with moments of celebration, reflection, and honoring of LGBTQ voices. Madonna accepted the Advocate for Change award, presented by Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen accepted the Vito Russo award, presented by Sarah Jessica Parker. Other major winners included the cast of Pose (Outstanding Drama Series) and CNN Tonight with Don Lemon (Outstanding TV Journalism Segment).

The New York City ceremony will air exclusively on Logo on Sunday, May 12 at 8pm ET/PT.

The 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards are supported by Presenting Partners Delta Air Lines, Gilead, Hyundai, Ketel One Family-Made Vodka, and Wells Fargo. GLAAD is also grateful to: Official Partners Bud Light and Google; Titanium Partner AT&T and WEN; Platinum Partners Comcast NBCUniversal-Telemundo, Creative Artists Agency, Disney ABC Television Group, Facebook/Instagram, HBO, Hulu, Kaiser Permanente, MetLife, NBA & WNBA, Netflix, Omnicom Group, PRG, Sheppard Mullin, Turner; Gold Partners CBS/Showtime, Nielsen, PWC, UM, Univision, and VER; and Silver Partners Allstate, Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Warner Bros.