Lena Waithe Uses Her Trailblazer Award Acceptance Speech to Praise the Stars of Paris Is Burning

Lena Waithe was honoured with the Trailblazer Award at the MTV Movie and TV Awards in NYC on Saturday night. The actress and Emmy-winning writer — who hit the red carpet with her fianceé Alana Mayo, gave a poignant acceptance speech on stage, during which she gave "glory and shine" to the stars of the iconic 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning. "I believe the only reason why I'm even allowed to stand here is because of a few other trailblazers that some of you might not be aware of." Lena then urged the audience to think of those LGBTQ pioneers, like Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Angie Xtravaganza, who "strutted through a brick wall so we wouldn't have to."