On Saturday, October 22, at Paramount Studios, Janelle Monáe will receive the trailblazer award at the 2022 Outfest Legacy Awards. The function is a part of the 40th-anniversary commemoration of Outfest. The honor will be given to Monáe in recognition of her work as a musician and actor who has persistently supported the LGBTQ+ community.
Eight Grammy nominations have been received by Monáe, including for song of the year for her work on Fun “We .’s Are Young” (2012), the album of the year for certain nights (2012), and album of the year for her own Dirty Computer (2018).
She was also a member of the casts of Hidden Figures, which won the 2017 award, and Moonlight, and garnered two Screen Actors Guild nominations for best performance by a cast in a motion film (a 2017 nominee).
In December, she will appear in Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which also stars Daniel Craig, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, and Leslie Odom Jr.
Outfest’s executive director Damien S. Navarro said in a statement:
“The Outfest Legacy Awards…spotlight the artists, leadership, and organizations that have significantly contributed to queer representation and advocacy across media, arts, and entertainment. We invite the world to join us in lifting up our awardees who have collectively inspired a new generation of creators, storytellers, and audiences – carving a path for tomorrow’s artists.”
The Jonathan Howard Legacy Award will go to Kerri Stoughton-Jackson, the deputy director of Outfest, while the Guardian Award will go to Glamazon, Amazon’s diversity and inclusion network for LGBTQIA+ workers and their allies.