Tomlin to Present Vanguard Award to Jane Fonda

Lily Tomlin and Frances McDormand will present awards to Jane Fonda (“Grace and Frankie”) and writer-director Ron Nyswaner (“Freeheld,” “Philadelphia”) at the 46^th annual Vanguard Awards gala on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The Vanguard Awards, which benefit the LA LGBT Center, is open to the public and gets underway at 6 p.m. with a silent auction and red carpet reception, followed by a dinner and award show. The fun continues at a dessert and after party with DJ Asha at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.

Jane Fonda, who is receiving the Vanguard Award, is a longtime LGBT ally, campaigning with Harvey Milk against California’s anti-LGBT Briggs Initiative, fighting Anita Bryant’s effort to demonize LGBT people, and has been a lifelong champion for human rights. She and Tomlin will be back for Season 2 of their hit Netflix series, “Grace and Frankie.”

Ron Nyswaner, who is receiving the Rand Schrader Distinguished Acheivment Award, is an openly gay writer, producer, documentary filmmaker, activist and LGBT film pioneer. His latest film, “Freeheld,” stars Juliana Moore and Ellen Page as a lesbian couple fighting for partner benefits after one is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Nyswaner is also the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of “Philadelphia,” the first major studio film to address homophobia and AIDS, and is the winner of a Peabody Award for his film “Soldier’s Girl,” which tells the true-life story of transgender heroine Calpernia Addams.

Nyswaner and Fonda share a connection through “Soldiers Girl,” a TV movie that starred Troy Garity, Fonda’s son with former husband Tom Hayden. Garity has followed in his activist parents’ footsteps, as founder of the Peace Process Network, an international gang violence prevention coalition, and as chairman of Homies Unidos, a gang violence prevention group in Los Angeles.

The Vanguard Awards benefits the LA Gay & Lesbian Center. For tickets see: https://www.lgbtvanguardawards.org/#tickets.