Human Rights Campaign to honor Anne Hathaway at National Dinner
Actress has been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ equality for the past decade
The Human Rights Campaign will honor Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway with the HRC National Equality Award at its annual National Dinner on Saturday, Sept. 15.
“Through her incredible talent and bold activism, Anne Hathaway uses her global platform to stand up for the LGBTQ community,” HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “From speaking out against discriminatory legislation targeting the LGBTQ community to her leadership on workplace equality for women, Anne is making a real difference in the lives of countless people around the globe. HRC is proud to honor Anne Hathaway with the HRC National Equality Award at our 22nd annual HRC National Dinner.”
Hathaway has been a vocal proponent of LGBTQ rights for the past decade.
In 2008, she addressed a crowd of HRC members and supporters in Los Angeles, telling them: “I don’t consider myself just an ally to the LGBT community, I consider myself your family. And so, I’m doing what we should all do with our families — I’m loving you, I support you, I completely accept you as you are, as I hope you do me, and if anyone ever tries to hurt you, I’m going to give them hell.”
In 2012, Hathaway and her husband, Adam Shulman, sold their wedding photos and donated the proceeds to organizations pushing to legalize marriage equality.
In 2016, when Georgia lawmakers were considering passing a bill that would allow people to discriminate against LGBTQ people, Hathaway joined an HRC-led coalition of actors and film studios to protest the proposed law.
She also signed her name to a petition promising that the film industry would move production out of state if the bill was signed into law. Gov. Nathan Deal eventually vetoed the bill.
Hathaway, one of the stars of Ocean’s Eight, and the soon-to-be-released films The Hustle and Serenity, has won an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as several other awards for her film work over the years.
She was appointed as U.N. Women’s Global Ambassador in 2016, a role in which she advocates for women’s equality in the workplace, and also serves on the advisory board for Lollipop Theater Network, an organization that screens movies for pediatric patients suffering from chronic or life-threatening illnesses.
HRC previously announced that former Vice President Joe Biden and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will speak at the organization’s marquee fundraising event, which will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in downtown Washington, D.C. Also delivering remarks will be Virginia Del. Danica Roem and Nelson Araujo, the Democratic nominee for Nevada Secretary of State.
The dinner will follow an earlier separate event, where Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a longtime LGBTQ ally, will address HRC members.
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