Accepting a GLAAD Media Award for her Netflix series Sense8, Lilly Wachowski made her first public appearance since her transition last night.

The director of the Matrix trilogy and sister of Lana Wachowski, who came out as trans four years ago, released a statement last month coming out.

Titled ‘Sex change shocker – Wachowski brothers now sisters!!!’, the statement suggested that the Daily Mail had pressured her into revealing her gender identity, an accusation the Mail denied.

Taking to the stage last night, Wachowski opened her speech with the words “ta-da!”, going on to sarcastically thank “the extremely sensitive and courteous people at the Daily Mail.”

She added: “My sister Julie likes to joke, ‘you can’t write this shit’ but interconnectivity and serendipity and our relationship to each other past, present and future to those who have come before to those who will follow, Sense 8 was born from this primordial human stuff.

“Where do we find the courage to break free of the boxes of our lives?…. The ideas of identity and transformation are critical components of our work, the bedrock that all ideas rest upon is love.”

The Matrix director said “love is a crucial thing for transgender people, it’s a tether”.

“While creativity can sore beyond our seemingly immutable biological gender designations, when faced with a rather simple proposition of whether or not we are lovable, our imagination falters. Too many of us end up on the wrong side of the existential question. And so we ring that bell, not just for everyone else’s sake but for our own.”

She genuinely thanked the team behind Sense8, and her wife, ending on: “Now get out there and go love with all your fucking might.”

Sense8 was given the Outstanding Drama Series award.

Other winners at the GLAAD Awards, which took place in Los Angeles last night, included Demi Lovato who won the Vanguard award, and Ruby Rose who took home the Stephen F. Kolzak award.

I Am Cait tied with I am Jazz for the scripted reality section of the awards, and Amazon’s Transparent also took home a gong.

Along with her sister, Lana, Lilly forms part of the Wachowski duo that also created Cloud Atlas and the hit Netflix drama, Sense 8.

Lana transitioned in 2000 and made it public in 2012, when she became an advocate for trans awareness and opened up about the difficulties she faced in the process.