The 2022 BET Awards passed off simply two days after the Supreme Court handed down its resolution in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group, overturning 50 years of abortion rights granted by Roe v. Wade and Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey. Stars at the present together with Janelle Monáe and host Taraji P. Henson spoke on to the court docket after they took the stage at the awards present.
Taraji P. Henson known as out the Supreme Court
Empire star Taraji P. Henson returned to the BET Awards stage for the second 12 months in a row in June 2022. The longtime actor wasted no time in addressing the elephant in the room — the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade — by calling out the court docket straight in her opening monologue.
Henson praised Lizzo for pledging to donate $1 million to Deliberate Parenthood in the wake of the resolution. Henson then referenced Lizzo’s hit music “About Damn Time” to make some extent about abortion rights.
“It’s about damn time we talk about the fact that guns have more rights than a woman,” Henson stated plainly. “It’s a sad day in America. A weapon that can take lives has more rights than a woman that can give life — if she wants to.”
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Janelle Monáe didn’t mince phrases: ‘F*** you, Supreme Court’
Whereas Henson was extra diplomatic along with her phrases, her Hidden Figures co-star Janelle Monáe was extra frank along with her sentiments when she took the stage to current the award for greatest feminine R&B/pop artist.
“F*** you, Supreme Court,” Monáe stated, placing up a center finger. “I know we’re celebrating us right now, which we should. We absolutely deserve to celebrate. Especially now, we must celebrate our art by protecting our right and our truth.”
“I’d like to give a special, special shoutout to Black women, to Black queer artists, to Black nonbinary artists,” Monáe stated. “These artists making art on our own terms, owning our truths and expressing ourselves freely and unapologetically in a world that tries to control and police our bodies, my body, and our decisions, my decision.”
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Latto and Jazmine Sullivan expressed their assist
Henson and Monáe weren’t the solely stars to make use of their voices for good at the BET Awards. Monáe presented the best female R&B/pop artist award to singer Jazmine Sullivan, who then used her speech to shine a light-weight on what’s taking place.
“Men: we need y’all,” she stated. “We need y’all to stand up for us, stand up with us. … This is not just a woman’s issue — this is everybody’s issue. We need your support more than ever. Y’all got us? ‘Cause we got y’all.”
After Latto gained the greatest new artist award, she was emphatic in her acceptance speech. “It’s giving pro-choice,” she stated forcefully. “It’s never giving a man policing my body.”
The solid of Tyler Perry’s Sistas additionally used their time on stage properly, encouraging viewers to exit and vote, including, “In light of the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade, it’s time for sisters across the world to lift our voices.”