I'm sorry. I... I'm sorry Dad. I'm sorry.
I'm just trying... Can you just help me out here?
Are you saying that you're gonna start...
dressing up like a lady all the time?
No, honey.
my whole life, I've been dressing up
like a man.
This is me.
We went from, as I saw it,
we're on the outside,
to, within a year, or a year and a half,
or two years, to be right in the center of the industry
and to be innovating in the center of the industry.
Yeah, I don't know how it happened.
But it's a testament to
Jeff's ability to, I think, disrupt everything.
I think somebody called him, a liberator,
a liberator of industries.
Total liberator for me as an artist.
People have come up to me and said,
"Please tell everybody thank you."
And that's new.
Something is hitting people,
not only on
transgender issues,
but on family issues, modern issues.
I think what Amazon has done and Jeff has green lit,
is a modern show, a very modern show,
a very modern family.
People say, "This is my family."
I came of age in a generation, kind of, right on the edge
where, I had every expectation that my work
would be fine with the fact that I was gay.
And I wouldn't work for a place
that wouldn't have that quality to it.
So, I didn't have a strong perception one way or the other
but what I found when I got to Amazon,
was that it was an incredibly easy place to be myself,
in all ways, including the fact that I'm gay.
And it's really delivered on that promise
the entire time I've been here, all 13 years.
GLAMazon goes all the way back to 1999.
We had an employee who joined the company
and was just looking for a way for members of the
LGBTQ community to come together.
But now we're actually making impacts on
day-to-day lives of Amazonians.
Everywhere from South Africa to Australia,
you name it, we've got presence.
That expansion and those other chapters
solidify that we are a diverse organization,
not just here in Seattle but across the globe.
I feel really fortunate that I work for a leader who has
proactively come out and shared with employees
his personal opinion about why diversity and inclusion
is so important, not only to us as a business,
but to us as an Amazon community.
Our ability to tap into the value of people,
no matter what their background,
is incredibly important for a company
that's growing and scaling up as fast as we do.
Of course, I say this as someone who is queer,
transgender, Jewish, mixed race, and a female veteran.
I first came to Amazon in 1996.
It was always clear that Jeff and all of my colleagues
accepted people for who they we.
When Jeff and MacKenzie gave 2.5 million dollars
to Washington State's marriage equality initiative,
it was a game changer, a true game changer in many ways.
The gift was from Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos.
Respected,
prominent,
successful,
straight people.
Over a thousand articles were written about their
generosity in the days after their donation
and donations from straight people began pouring in.
It sparked so much conversation in the media
but also in people's homes
and it changed people's hearts and minds.
And we won.
Jeff Bezos is a local community leader
but he is also an internationally renowned business leader.
And so his voice is so important.
And his willingness to stand up to support marriage equality,
stand up for the rights of LGBTQ Americans,
has been critically important. It makes a difference
right here at home and it's made a difference across
the United States and around the world.
We need leaders.
And Jeff is a leader.
Put him next to the definition of leader
and put a picture of Jeff.
Jeff, thank you for being a huge advocate,
a leader, a strong voice.
Congratulations Jeff, on an award well deserved.
Thank you for creating this great company where
so many people can come to work everyday
and bring their full selves
and know that it's the content of what they're doing
that matters and not the other extraneous things.
It's been a great place to work and I'm so appreciative.
Thank you.
Your ability to hold space for what is possible,
your ability to hold space for artistry,
and for politics,
and for multiple views for a, sort of,
wide range of heroes,
your ability to hold space for ideas,
for risk, for possibility,
held space for me and held space for "Transparent,"
and for that I am eternally grateful.
So, thank you.