Before I dish about who I sat with, gabbed with etc. in the next post, I'll tell you about Judith Light being the first straight ally in the 25 year history of Outfest to be honored with an Outfest Legacy Award. What was cool about the audience was that everyone there seemed to be quite aware of what Judith means to Outfest and to the LGBT community in general, how much she has done for us in over the last 25 years or so.
It's not for awards or PR. She is a woman who was horrfied by the AIDS epidemic and the government's lack of action when people, including her friends, were dying. She is a strong advocate for equal rights which hits home because, as she said last night, her publicist of 30 years and his partner - who are family to her - can't get married the way she and her husband did.
"Not only do I stand with you now and forever, I am enternally grateful to you," she said in her very moving speech.
Judith's "Ugly Betty" co-star Michael Urie was on hand for a very warm introduction sayiing that the causes and organizations she has helped is like reading out of the community yellow pages because there were so many. Last night's award was for her support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender films.
"You are my teachers, you are my role models," she said. "You risk everything to be authentic. Do you know how rare that is in this culture? ...People who are out and who are willing to risk in order to lead."
"...This community gets itself. You recognize the importance of your history.'

Her comments made me and others so proud to be out and trying to be authentic. How wonderful to have someone acknowledge that in such an insightful way.
Great actress, great lady.

BTW, my friend Karen Ocamb has a wonderful account of the evening in her blog including the entire text of Judith's speech. Check it out!