Watch Lena Waithe accept her GLAAD Award with empowering speech: 'We need to be united'

Thurdsay night was a full-circle moment for Lena Waithe.

The Emmy-winning writer and Ready Player One star, 33, won the award for Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBTQ character) at the 2018 GLAAD Media Awards for her work writing Master of None‘s “Thanksgiving” — and, in a touching moment, Waithe was presented the prize by Halle Berry.

Waithe previousy told The New York Times that Halle Berry’s Oscar win in 2002 had a major impact on her. Her Academy Award win “changed me,” she told the newspaper of Berry, who dedicated her Oscar to “every nameless, faceless woman of color” in Hollywood. “It made me know that we as a community were really embraced by Hollywood in a real way.”

Waithe echoed that sentiment on Thursday night, saying, “I saw her Oscar speech and knew I could do anything, so I’m always grateful to you.”

EW has the exclusive video of Waithe’s acceptance from the ceremony Thursday, in which she called for unity in the LGBTQ community. “We have to support each other, we have to talk to each other, we have to educate each other about our own individual journeys because at the end of the day, we’re all we got. So let’s hold onto that and let’s hold onto each other,” she said, adding, “We work really hard to tell our stories and let’s continue to tell our stories because the more visible we are, the less they can act like we’re invisible.”

Also that evening, Britney Spears was presented the Vanguard Award by Ricky Martin and Ryan Murphy presented the Stephen F. Kolzak Award to Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons.

Denis O’Hare, Jon Huertas, and Chris Sullivan were onhand to accept the Outstanding Drama Series award for This Is Us, Disney Channel’s Andi Mack was awarded the Outstanding Kids & Family Programming accolade, and Chelsea Peretti, Stephanie Beatriz, and Melissa Fumero accepted Oustanding Comedy Series prize for Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

RELATED VIDEO: ABC Family and Fox score top marks for inclusion of LGBT characters

The following is a list of other award recipients announced at the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles:

Outstanding Film – Limited Release: A Fantastic Woman (Sony Pictures Classics)

Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series: When We Rise (ABC)

Outstanding Comic Book: Black Panther: World of Wakanda (Marvel Comics)

Outstanding Daily Drama: The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS)

Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: “Why Bisexual Men Are Still Fighting to Convince Us They Exist” by Samantha Allen (Splinter)

Outstanding Blog: TransGriot (blogspot.com)

Outstanding Scripted Television Series (Spanish language): Las Chicas Del Cable (Netflix)

Outstanding Digital Journalism (Spanish language): “Tres Hemanitos Para Dos Papás” by Jacqueline García

The GLAAD Media Awards will air April 18 at 8 p.m. ET on Logo.