Michaela Jaé Rodriguez Reflects on Standing Ovation for Historic Golden Globe Win and Its Effect on Her Career: ‘That Night, I Felt the Shift’

variety.com:

Angelique Jackson Earlier this month, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez was honored by the Human Rights Campaign with the Equality Award for her work advocating for the LGBTQ community.

Accepting the award at the JW Marriott in Downtown Los Angeles, Rodriguez delivered a rousing speech addressing the onslaught of more than 400 anti-queer bills that have been introduced across the country, “I remember growing up in Jackson, New Jersey, and feeling free,” Rodriguez told the crowd at the HRC Los Angeles dinner on March 25. “When I was four years old, I had no knowledge of the restrictions that society wanted to place on my body or on my existence.

My light. The boxes they wanted to fit me and the standards they wanted me to uphold. I had full autonomy to be just me.” When she was growing up, Rodriguez went to church regularly and took some important lessons from her studies of the Bible. “There were three words that stuck with me.

One was ‘Love’ … and the second two words where ‘I Am,’” she shared, quoting from the book of Exodus, when Moses was posed the question ‘Who are you?’ and the creator responded, “I am who I am.” That passage came to define how Rodriguez made her way through the world, supported by her mother Audrey Rodriguez, as well as her father and her stepfather, who all “encouraged me to simply exist as I was.” That’s why she’s so laser focused on uplifting the many young people who are affected by this wave of legislation. “Love with conditions could possibly be the fall of a nation or humanity.