After winning the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie at the 2019 Emmy Awards, Patricia Arquette gave a powerful speech about transgender rights.

“I just have to say I'm grateful to be working. I'm grateful at 50 to be getting the best parts of my life and that's great,” Arquette said. “But in my heart, I’m so sad I lost my sister Alexis and that trans people are still being persecuted.”

In September 2016, Arquette’s sister Alexis died of cardiac arrest related to HIV. Alexis was an actor and transgender activist who transitioned in the early 2000s. Three years after Alexis’s death, Patricia used her Emmy win to celebrate her sister and bring awareness to issues facing the LGBTQ community.

“I'm in mourning, Alexis, and I will be the rest of my life for you until we change the world, until trans people are not persecuted,” Arquette said.