“I want to kick this off by saying: my body, my business,” Megan Thee Stallion told the ballroom at Cipriani South Street Tuesday evening to roaring cheers and applause. The three-time Grammy winner was on hand, arriving pop-star late, at the annual Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Spring Into Action gala, to accept its Catalyst for Change Award, for her advocacy for the organization over her career.
Megan was joined by Patricia Arquette, who received the Champion of Change Award, as well as other VIP guests like Beanie Feldstein, Molly Ringwald, Busy Philipps, Cat Power and AnnaSophia Robb.
“Planned Parenthood is doing such important and impactful work. They’re providing millions across the country with safe and secure sexual reproductive health services, a necessity during this time when women’s abortion rights are under attack,” Megan told the room.
“Megan’s music celebrates herself, her body, her confidence, and how we as women should put our power and our pleasure first,” Tonya Lewis Lee said of the honoree. “She passionately calls for justice, equality and respect, especially for Black women. Planned Parenthood of Greater New York knows that we cannot have true reproductive freedom without caring for and listening to Black women and mothers who are disproportionately impacted.”
“I’ve always felt like it was my responsibility as a public figure very seriously,” Megan said. “I know I was placed on this Earth to be more than just a musician, and I have a bigger purpose to use my voice to speak out against injustice.
“To think that we live in one of the most progressive countries in the world . . . I don’t really understand why the U.S. government don’t feel like they got bigger fish to fry than what buns may or may not be in my oven!” she added.
The evening included a cocktail hour where guests, many of whom wore the organization’s signature hot pink, could purchase merch (in addition to taking advantage of the plethora of photo-ops, of course). Over beet and asparagus salad, honoree Arquette told the room of how her first job was at Planned Parenthood, when she was 15, and how she relied upon their services when at 18 she became pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy.
“I wasn’t ready to be a mother yet, and I was so grateful to have health care providers who cared about my body, my actual life and my right to choose,” Arquette said.
“Planned Parenthood has been there for me in some of the most vulnerable, scary, pivotal moments of my life. And the fact that legislators can just take away health care for millions of Americans at will because of sexist and ignorant ideology is sickening to me.”
