The Los Angeles LGBT Center is proud to announce that two-time Academy Award winner Jane Fonda and Academy Award nominated screenwriter Ron Nyswaner will be honored at the Center’s 46th Anniversary Gala Vanguard Awards on November 7 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
Fonda will receive the award from the incomparable Lily Tomlin, her co-star in the hit show Grace and Frankie. Nyswaner’s award will be presented by Frances McDormand.
Additional participants and attendees will be announced in the coming weeks. One of the nation’s premier LGBT charity events, the Center’s Anniversary Gala Vanguard Awards will bring together more than 1,200 LGBT people and their allies to enjoy cocktails, dinner, and entertainment, while celebrating inspirational honorees who exemplify courage, compassion, and a relentless tenacity for creating positive change in the world. The evening also features an extensive silent auction that includes high-end items, packages, and experiences.
“This honor means a lot to me. The work that the Center does for the LGBT community, its children, and extended families is profound and essential,” said Fonda, who will soon appear in director Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth.
Fonda became a friend and ally to the LGBT community at a time when celebrities advocating for LGBT rights was almost unthinkable. She campaigned with Harvey Milk against California’s anti-LGBT Briggs Initiative, fought Anita Bryant – the notorious activist who demonized LGBT with a campaign to repeal an anti-discrimination ordinance in Florida – and has been a lifelong supporter of the LGBT community and champion for human rights.
“Since long before I worked with Jane, I was in awe of her energy, activism, and generosity,” said Tomlin. “Three decades later, I am still in awe of her and feel truly privileged to bestow this well-deserved honor. She has earned this over and over and over in her lifetime.”
Nyswaner is an openly gay writer, producer, documentary filmmaker, activist and pioneer in LGBT-related films. He’s the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Philadelphia, the first major studio film to address homophobia and AIDS, and is the winner of a Peabody Award for his film Soldier’s Girl, which tells the true-life story of transgender heroine Calpernia Addams. More recently he wrote Freeheld—starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page—the groundbreaking story of a woman’s struggle to win her lesbian partner’s pension benefits after she’s diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is also the co-creator of the Nyswaner/Salzman Film Archive, the fourth largest LGBT film archive in the United States.
Please visit www.lgbtvanguardawards.org for additional information including details on how to purchase tickets.
Sponsors of the Center’s Anniversary Vanguard Awards include Diamond Sponsor: Wells Fargo; Platinum Sponsors: AT&T DirecTV and The Palette Fund; Gold Sponsors: Anita May Rosenstein Foundation, American Airlines, Comcast NBCUniversal, Nordstrom, Bloomberg Philanthropies, General Motors, U.S. Bank, Van Fletcher & Skip Paul, Southern California Gas Company, Barry McCabe, PacFed, Greg Fullmer/Danny Hawkins/Douglas Dyakon, Curt Shepard & Alan Hergott, and Lionsgate; Silver Sponsors: The Huntington, Ralphs/Food4Less, Union Bank, Target, Out@WB, The David Bohnett Foundation, Johnson Controls, The Hyatt Regency Century City Plaza, LabCorp, Rose Greene, Nihon Kohden, UTA Foundation, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.; In-Kind Sponsors: Pride.com & The Advocate, LA Pride, Stoli, Pasquini Coffee, and Lesbian News; and Official Wine Sponsor: Kobler Estate Winery
