Actress Cynthia Erivo, who stars in the musical drama “Wicked” opposite Ariana Grande, just said in a speech at the GLAAD Media Awards that it’s “hard” not being referred to by preferred pronouns.

The 38-year-old British star made the remarks during the event at the Beverly Hilton last week, where she was awarded the Stephen F. Kolzak award, which is given to an “openly queer member of the entertainment or media community for their work toward eliminating homophobia.”

“This has been a wild, wild ride and I’ve been deeply grateful for every second of it,” Erivo said during her speech. “More than anything that I have seen and felt, how open-armed my community has been. I have spoken about being your whole self and your true self. I speak about the prizes that come from being you against the odds, but rarely do I acknowledge how hard that can be.”

“It isn’t easy. None of it is,” the Grammy Award winner continued, per USA Today. “Waking up and choosing to be yourself, proclaiming a space belongs to you when you don’t feel welcomed, teaching people on a daily basis how to address you and dealing with the frustration of re-teaching people a word that has been in the human vocabulary since the dawn of time.”

“They, them. Words used to describe pedantically two or more people, (and) poetically a person who is simply more,” Erivo said.

She continued, “It isn’t easy to ask people to treat you with dignity, since you should just have it, because it’s a given. It isn’t easy to learn to grow who you are if the world around you is knocking at your door, telling you to stay inside. Some flowers bloom against all the odds, like the peony, but most flowers need to be tended to and cared for before they brave the light and open up their petals to the sun.”

“Here in this room, we’ve all been the recipients of a gift that is the opportunity to be more. I doubt that it has come easy to any of us, but more for some, the road has not been one paved with yellow bricks but instead paved with bumps and potholes − whichever road you have traveled, how beautiful it is that you’ve had a road to travel on at all. There are the invisible ones who have had no road at all.”

“We are all visible,” she concluded. “We can be seen… I ask every single one of you in this room, with the spaces that you’re in and the lights that you hold, to point it in the direction of someone who just needs a little guidance.”

Erivo faced significant backlash for her complaints and for saying anyone who uses neopronouns, which are usually gender-neutral or “nonbinary,” is “more.”