Hundreds of attendees gathered April 10 for The LGBT Community Center’s annual dinner, which featured multi-platinum billboard artist Kesha and other honorees and guests, including banking executives and out trans members of the military.
“Thank you for being my home,” said Kesha, who is slated to release her first independent album, “Period,” in July. “I don’t know where I would be without this community — I don’t fit in anywhere else.”
The formal affair at historic Cipriani’s on Wall Street set the tone for an evening that was both elegant and reflective. It was a glitzy, star-studded gala dinner, but it also emphasized the need to support The Center, which sees more than 300,000 visitors a year.
“Tonight isn’t just a celebration,” The Center’s board president, Allyn Shaw, said during his opening remarks. “It’s a recommitment to build a world where LGBTQ people are not only surviving, but thriving. We’re safe, we’re seen, we’re celebrated, and of course always free.”
Other honorees of the night included Ruth Jacks of Wells Fargo & Company and Susie Scher of Goldman Sachs. A special guest was Navy commander Emily Schilling, who is the highest-ranking out transgender officer in the Navy and currently leads a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s unconstitutional trans military ban.
“I swore an oath to support and defend the constitution,” Schilling said. “That oath requires obedience to lawful orders. But when an order undermines the very principles I swore to uphold, I have the responsibility to challenge it.
“That’s not rebellion,” Schilling added. “That’s duty.”
Schilling is also the president of SPARTA, a non-profit organization that represents about 2,400 trans service members actively serving in the military, but she estimates that there are over 15,000 transgender service members in the military.
“We believe quite simply that if you are qualified and willing, you deserve a place on the team,” she said.
The first honoree, Ruth Jacks, received the Visibility Award from her longtime partner and co-parent of three daughters, Felicia Lewis. Before Jacks accepted the award, she handed the microphone to her daughters to share words of love for their mother.
Then, Jacks proposed to Lewis onstage. The crowd erupted in applause.
“I don’t know what I was more afraid of,” Jacks said after receiving a yes from her now-fiancee. “Her answer, or being able to get up once I got on one knee!”
Immediately after getting engaged, she took to the microphone to tell the audience about her own battles with visibility and invisibility, especially as the highest-ranking out lesbian at a big bank.
“What I realize is that visibility is extremely important, and the job that I have now, it affords me the opportunity to help companies,” Jacks said during her remarks. “It allows me to help companies grow. And sometimes that means it helps families grow. And sometimes that means it helps communities grow. And that’s by far the best job I’ve ever had.”
Dinner was served halfway through the program, with The Center encouraging guests to meet and connect with those at their table.
“The best possible outcome of tonight is that people in the room know that they’re supporting something and feel a part of a community, that community is the answer to the current moment, and that The Center raises the funds it needs to continue to do the amazing work we do,” said Jeffrey Klein, COO of the Center, during a dinner conversation.
After dinner, Susie Scher was presented with the Trailblazer Award for paving the way for queer executives to feel safe and accepted at the helm of corporations. Scher remembered coming out to her father in the ’90s when she had first started at Goldman Sachs. He told her that she wouldn’t be able to work there if she was gay.
“Don’t worry,” Scher told her father then, “I’m never going to tell them.”
Scher continued, “…Little did we know that being out, being authentically me, would become my brand.”
Later during the program, actor Christopher Hanke held a live pledge drive for The Center, which raised more than $640,000 in a matter of minutes as donations were projected on huge screens on either side of the ballroom. Even the daughters of the newly engaged Ruth Jacks and Felicia Lewis pledged $1,000 each. Shortly after, a new donation appeared onscreen from “The girls’ piggy banks.”
Others in attendance included writer Harper Steele — who starred in the documentary “Will & Harper” — and elected officials, professional athletes, artists, performers, and more.
At last, just before dessert, Bob the Drag Queen stepped onstage to present Kesha — who wrote on Instagram in 2022 that she’s “not gay” but also “not straight” — with the Visionary Award.
“With glitter, shots, combat boots, smudged eyeliner, and a ripped-up shirt, Kesha came storming into our lives, brandishing that little dollar sign in her name, with her breakout song ‘TikTok,’” Bob said. “And from that moment on, she proved she was more than just a party anthem queen — she became a fearless advocate for being unapologetically herself, and this message resonated deeply with the queer community. Through songs like ‘Die Young,’ ‘We R Who We R,’ and ‘Praying,’ she has sown her unwavering commitment to self-love, acceptance, and standing up against adversity.”
Kesha’s forthcoming album will be released after a longstanding legal battle with her former producer Dr. Luke. She was received with a standing ovation as she took the mic.
“I’m releasing ‘Period’ as the CEO of my own record label. And all of these songs have been produced by me. Written by me. Sung by me,” Kesha said. “And it’s the first time in my adult life, since I was 18 years old, that I have legal rights to the recordings of my voice.”
Kesha went on to say that she wanted to experience her latest album cycle as her fearless, empowered, and unbothered self. “But the truth is that I have seen some shit,” she said. “I have been through some shit, and, whether I like it or not, it has changed me. It has made me the strong motherf—er that I am.”
“And I can only imagine that every person in this room has also seen some shit. Y’all have been through some shit. And I know that it has changed you as well. Shit that you did not ask to go through,” she said.
“I don’t have all the answers to that hot mess,” Kesha said about the state of the Trump Administration’s attempts to silence queer and trans communities. “But I can say this: What we live through makes us stronger and gives us empathy for the person sitting next to us. In the midst of all of the hate and the chaos, the most political thing we can do is love ourselves and love one another. So let’s be f–king radical.”
“And I will fight for each and every one of you and your rights the same way that you fought for me and stood up for my rights when I needed it,” she said. “And I will be doing that for the rest of my f—ing life.”
