WATCH: Lana Wachowski Talks Growing Up Transgender In HRC Speech

Transgender filmmaker Lana Wachowski recounted her traumatic childhood and planned suicide in a heartfelt yet funny speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s fundraising gala. Wachowski accepted the HRC’s Visibility Award on October 20 in San Francisco.

“I am here because when I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I couldn’t find anyone like me in the world and it felt like my dreams were foreclosed simply because my gender was less typical than others. If I can be that person for someone else, then the sacrifice of my private civic life may have value. I know I am also here because of the strength and courage and love that I am blessed to receive from my wife, my family and my friends. And in this way I hope to offer their love in the form of my materiality to a project like this one started by the HRC, so that this world that we imagine in this room might be used to gain access to other rooms, to other worlds previously unimaginable.”

“Lana’s willingness to tell her story will impact and change countless lives across the world,” said HRC President Chad Griffin, who introduced Wachowski. “She is a giant in her industry, and for someone with such success and such profile to be willing to tell their personal story to the world sends a tremendous message to LGBT people across the globe that they too can aspire to be a giant in their industry.”