SAG Awards 2016: Jeffrey Tambor on trans awareness: 'Non-education is no longer an alibi'

Jeffrey Tambor earned his first-ever SAG Award on Sunday, and onstage, the Transparent actor dedicated his win to the entire transgender community. Backstage after his win, Tambor revisited his comments, adding that trans awareness is an issue that we all need to pay attention to.

“Everybody has to change their vocabulary a little bit. Everybody has to wake up, and that’s from government to teachers to janitors in high schools, and to TSA people,” Tambor said. “Non-education is no longer an alibi. We have to be educated.”

When asked what he would say to the future president, Tambor, who plays Maura Pfefferman on Amazon’s Transparent, emphasized that the United States is a diverse nation, and any future political leader should make sure to listen to its diverse voices.

“I would say it’s a nation of very different people, and we need our authenticity and we need to feel safe and we need to feel free,” he said. “Help us. Enable us. Engage us. Listen to us.”

See the full list of this year’s SAG Award winners here.