Last week at the 2016 GLAAD Gala San Francisco, Monica Roberts received GLAAD’s Special Recognition Award for her pioneering blog, TransGriot which has covered transgender issues, particularly issues faces trans people of color, since 2006. The award was presented to Roberts by Her Story’s Angelica Ross, founder of TransTechSocial. Check out her acceptance speech below!

Ross said of Roberts: “To this day, blogs like TransGriot give us the bigger picture, the fuller story, something you can’t do in a 140 characters or less. They provide a natural filtering, to make sure the right voices are at the top, not just the loudest voices. Don’t get me wrong, Monica is loud. Her laugh is loud. Her bravery is something else. She’s got a powerful, poignant voice and she’s not afraid to use it.” 

“Monica Roberts has used her blog to become a powerful voice for trans women of color and all trans people for the past 10 years,” said Nick Adams, GLAAD’s Director of Transgender Media. “Monica has consistently spoken out about the discrimination and violence faced by our community, and she’s shined a light on trans people, especially people of color, when other blogs and media outlets would not. We are thrilled to honor Monica for her work and for her contributions toward accelerating acceptance for all trans people.”

Monica Roberts is a native Houstonian, blogger, writer, and award winning transgender human rights advocate. She’s the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post, and the Advocate. She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award.

As outlets for independent activists, blogs have played a crucial role in accelerating acceptance of the LGBTQ community.