(L-R) Honoree Dylan Mulvaney, singer David Archuleta and honoree George Takei. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images for Lambda Legal via Los Angeles Blade)
The nation’s top LGBTQ legal organization, Lambda Legal, celebrated transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney and actor George Takei at its West Coast Liberty Awards on Oct. 24, raising nearly $300,000 for the organization’s litigation and public policy work.
About 200 supporters gathered at The Lot at Formosa in West Hollywood for the ceremony, hosted by comedian Dana Goldberg, who has helped raise more than $50 million for nonprofits supporting LGBTQ+ rights, marriage equality, abortion access, and HIV/AIDS education.
Lambda Legal’s CEO, Kevin Jennings, opened the evening with a sobering look at the current landscape for LGBTQ+ rights. “A wave of anti-LGBTQ+ hate is sweeping this country, and everything we have fought for over the past 51 years is now at risk,” Jennings warned, sharing statistics on the surge in discriminatory legislation—from 267 bills in 2022 to 530 in 2024, with dozens passed into law each year.
Lambda can claim numerous victories over its 51 years, including successfully fighting against sodomy laws and for same-sex marriage all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And just this week, the group announced that the U.S. Supreme Court had granted a request for a divided argument in challenge to Tennessee’s transgender youth health care ban. The case that will be argued by a partner attorney, Chase Strangio, Co-Director for Transgender Justice with ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project. Strangio will be the first trans man to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Honoree Dylan Mulvaney, 27, who rose to prominence documenting her gender transition on TikTok through her “Days of Girlhood” series, addressed the ongoing challenges facing the transgender community. “I’ve learned that there is no acceptable version of transness because trans people are still not widely accepted,” she said. “Lambda Legal is not only an example of queer connection, but it is a direct response to the far right’s obsession with making our lives a living hell.”
Sheila Kuehl, California’s first openly gay state legislator, presented Takei’s award with a moving tribute to his family’s internment camp experience during World War II. “From Santa Anita to Arkansas, then back to California and Tule Lake,” Kuehl said, “George’s family experienced the worst of internment, only to return to a home that no longer existed.”
Kuehl detailed the family’s post-war struggles: “After the war was over and everyone was released, they went back to what they thought would be their home. But there was nothing left; there was no money, there was no home, there was no business.”
As the nation grapples with the possibility of immigration detention camps for migrants, as promised by Donald Trump, Takei’s story stands as a reminder of the human cost when civil rights are destroyed in the name of xenophobia and hyperbole.
Takei, 86, best known for his role as Lieutenant Sulu in “Star Trek,” came out as gay in 2005 and married his husband, Brad Altman, in 2008. “Receiving the Liberty Award from Lambda Legal is deeply humbling,” Takei said. “This honor represents the legacy of so many extraordinary fighters… As we gather here for the West Coast Liberty Awards, it’s a reminder of how far we’ve come, but in the turbulence of this election cycle, we know how much further we have to go.”
The evening featured a performance by pop singer David Archuleta, with entertainment figures including Vince Rossi, Grant Knoche, Arisce Wanzer, Danny Pintauro, and Sizzy Rocket walking the blue carpet in support.
Past West Coast Liberty Awards honorees include Sally Field, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Margaret Cho, Alan Cumming, Kathy Griffin, Bill Jones, Dolores Huerta, Judith Light, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rosie O’Donnell, and Herb Ritts.
Founded in 1973, Lambda Legal remains the nation’s leading legal organization focused on LGBTQ+ civil rights, fighting discrimination through litigation, education, and public policy work. As legislative threats escalate, the organization’s mission remains clear: Lambda Legal continues to defend the right of LGBTQ+ people to live authentically and thrive without fear.
