Kathy Griffin is "unstoppable."
The comedian has "used her razor-sharp wit" and "big beautiful foul mouth" to stand up for important causes, her friend Sia said in presenting Griffin with The Advocate of the Year award at the 2025 Out100 Celebration.
"From standing up during the AIDS epidemic to fighting for marriage equality long before it was fashionable, Kathy has always been on the front lines to advocate for LGBTQ+ lives… Laughing, marching, and refusing to back down," Sia said. "When others tried to silence her, the queer community never did. Through the hardest chapter of her life, the LGBTQ+ community stood by her, and that's because she's always stood by them. As Kathy herself says, 'If it wasn't for the gay community, I wouldn't have been able to come back.'"
The stars were out for the Out100 event, which celebrated 100 trailblazers who made a significant impact in the visibility and empowering of the LGBTQ+ community Presented by Lexus, this year's Out100 honored Niecy Nash-Betts as the 2025 Icon of the Year, featured a heartfelt speech from Boots actor Miles Heizer, and also awarded Griffin with the title of Advocate of the Year.
"I'm here because of Kathy," Sia announced. "She's my friend, she's an excellent person, and she saved my life. We were both canceled at one point, and she definitely saved my life."
The "Elastic Heart" singer continued, "You know there are a lot of comedians who call themselves 'fearless,' but there is only one Kathy Griffin." Sia recalled a court case surrounding video footage from 2021 of a man who reportedly harassed two queer kids for taking photos of themselves in a hotel lobby before going to prom. After the video was reshared by "thousands of people" and led to that man being "fired," Sia noted that "he sued Kathy in federal court in Tennessee."
"She did not settle," Sia went on. "One million dollars in legal fees and four years later, this MAGA-supporting homophobe finally backed down from Kathy — as she, and you, the queer community, won that case."
After declaring that Griffin is "still unfiltered, unapologetic, and uncanceled… and uncancelable," Sia welcomed the comedian to the stage to accept the award of Advocate of the Year.
"Hello, everybody! What about fucking Sia… What?!" Griffin teased as she took to the stage and stood next to the pop star, adding: "Sia… Sing something."
"She's so bossy!" Sia joked, before immediately breaking into song and performing "Unstoppable" — one of the biggest hit songs in Sia's deep catalog of pop anthems — as a serenade to honor Griffin's work in LGBTQ+ advocacy.
Unsurprisingly, attendees at the 2025 Out100 celebration knew every lyric to "Unstoppable" and eventually started to sing along with Sia herself.
"Your harmonies were so nice," the pop star told the audience prior to exiting the stage and making room for Griffin to deliver her actual acceptance speech as 2025's Advocate of the Year.
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