Since going public with her sexual identity back in 2012, Evan Rachel Wood has been one of Hollywood’s strongest supporters of the LGBT community.
Saturday evening saw the “Westworld” actress honoured for her ongoing crusade for LGBT issues by the Human Rights Campaign at a gala dinner in North Carolina.
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“I thought women were beautiful,” she told the crowd as she accepted the Visibility Award. “But because I was born that way I never once stopped to think that was strange or anything to fear.”
As a teen, Wood recalled burying her feelings as a way to protect herself from anti-gay hate speech while growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I silenced my voice because I thought it would save me,” Wood admitted.
“I also thought that men were beautiful,” she continued. “I had no role model… The only thing that I knew was fear and confusion and loneliness. How can you be who you are when you don’t understand what you’re feeling?”
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Drawing on her own experience while growing up, Wood remains as vocal as possible in the hopes of helping other LGBT people. “One day I heard an actress say the word ‘bisexual’… the word didn’t make me feel marginalized, it made me feel less crazy. It made me feel less alone. It gave me hope… It made a world of difference in my life and in my identity,” she added.
Wood is currently engaged to musician Zach Villa, who are also known as the musical duo Rebel and a Basketcase. She welcomed a son with her ex-husband Jamie Bell in 2014
“Never stop fighting,” Wood concluded.