Out singer Dove Cameron’s AMA speech about the Club Q victims will devastate & inspire you

At Sunday night’s American Music Awards, singer and actor Dove Cameron took the opportunity to deliver a moving and inspiring speech dedicated to the victims of Saturday’s horrific mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

On the red carpet, the out “Boyfriend” singer was asked by Variety for her thoughts on the tragedy. She shared that she and her largely queer team had shared a hug after learning the news and urged viewers to look for opportunities to help LGBTQ organizations like GLAAD and the Trevor Project.

“Queer visibility is more important than ever right now,” she continued. “It’s in a permanent state of important because of how much our rights are up for grabs right now.”

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“What more can we say except we need stricter gun laws? What more can we say except we can’t be playing with people’s [lives] because of our own personal opinions about how someone else is leading their lives.”

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“It’s incredibly f*cked up. It’s incredibly disheartening. It’s depressing as s**t.”

“And we all need to take more accountability for our words, and if we’re in the public eye, even if you’re not queer, you need to be speaking up. You need to be saying something. Because the public is susceptible to being swayed, and there’s a lot going on right now that is anti-queer, and we all need to be taking a stand and standing with our queer friends and doing the most that we can for our community.”

Dove Cameron on the importance of queer representation: “Queer visibility is more important than ever…it’s in a permanent state of importance.” #AMAs2022 https://t.co/NG0g8hZ7C0 pic.twitter.com/WYPWINJZTV

— Variety (@Variety) November 20, 2022

Later in the evening, Cameron won the AMA award for New Artist of the Year. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated her win to the queer community.

“You guys have carved out such a space for me to be myself and to write music about it and I have never felt safer or more loved or more supported, and I hope I can give you some semblance of that same feeling in my music,” she said.

“On the heels of the tragedy that happened in Club Q in Colorado Springs I want to remind everyone how important queer visibility is and how important our community is,” she continued, again directing viewers to GLAAD and The Trevor Project.

“I want to remind you that you are made absolutely right and you are so loved and so held and I want to thank you for supporting me and thank you for holding this space, I’m holding it for you too.”

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