(CNN) 鈥� closed the night in typical bombastic and hilarious fashion at the Critics Choice Association鈥榮 Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television on Friday night in Los Angeles, delivering an impromptu speech that ran the gamut from community organizing to admitting she hasn鈥檛 seen the Amazon Prime show 鈥淓toile.鈥�
Sykes was awarded the last trophy of the evening, for career achievement, wrapping a show that saw other LGBTQ-identifying stars acknowledged for their work over the past year, including Nathan Lee Graham from 鈥淢id-Century Modern鈥� and the cast of 鈥�.鈥�
As Sykes began her speech, she held onto one of the cards that was on every table at the event, listing the evening鈥檚 winners. She joked that she should have stopped drinking by the time Liv Hewson 鈥� who was awarded a rising star statuette for their work on 鈥淵ellowjackets鈥� toward the middle of the evening 鈥� came onstage.
Admitting she had not written a prepared speech 鈥� 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know it was going to be this big of a deal,鈥� she quipped 鈥� Sykes then proceeded to go down the list of winners and mention every single one, including her 鈥淥ther Two鈥� costar Gideon Glick, who was recognized for his supporting work on 鈥淓toile鈥� (Glick鈥檚 win was bittersweet; while it was his birthday and the entire room broke out into a rendition of 鈥淗appy Birthday鈥� for him, news broke mere hours before the award show began that ).
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 watch the show,鈥� Sykes jokingly admitted on stage after talking about how much she loved Glick鈥檚 speech earlier, in which he reminisced about his mother鈥檚 acceptance of him when he came out at 12 and some of the struggles he later faced as a working LGBTQ+ actor.
Sykes 鈥� who was recognized for her work in standup and as a film and television actor 鈥� also called out CCA award-winners Megan Stalter of 鈥溾�� and 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥� cast member , both of whom she thanked for being unapologetically, and hilariously, themselves.
About Sasheer Zamata 鈥� who won a breakthrough performance award for her work on 鈥淎gatha All Along鈥� and mentioned during her speech that she came out as queer last year 鈥� Sykes joked that she knew the was queer before Zamata did.
Toward the end of her speech, Sykes addressed the reality TV award winners of the night, the Season 17 drag queens of 鈥淩uPaul鈥檚 Drag Race,鈥� calling the show a 鈥渟taple.鈥�
鈥淵鈥檃ll were out there making noise for us before all of this,鈥� Sykes said, gesturing to the event, before adding, 鈥淒rag queens have always been .鈥�
Finally, Sykes shouted out , who had been awarded the groundbreaker award just before her, joking that the 鈥渢he LGBTQ+ community is such fire, that we got a new member, we got Niecy!鈥� She also thanked Nash-Betts鈥� wife Jessica Betts 鈥渇or doing your job.鈥� (Nash-Betts and Betts .)
To conclude her speech, Sykes addressed the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, but also said that protecting the trans segment of the community is 鈥渙ur fight,鈥� since 鈥渢hey are right now.鈥�
鈥淲e just got to love hard. So that means you gotta be proud, you gotta be loud, we have to protect our trans brothers and sisters,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hats our next movement.鈥�
The-CNN-Wire
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