2007 (80th) ACADEMY AWARDS
Award Category:  Documentary (Short Subject)
Film Title:  Freeheld
Winner(s):  Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
Award Presenter(s):  (on film:) Army Staff Sergeant Kenji Thuloweit, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Smith, Army Specialist Charles Highland, Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrea Knudsen, Marine Corps 1st Lt. Curtis Williamson, Army Specialist Alexandria Corneiro, with Tom Hanks (on stage)

CYNTHIA WADE:
Thank you.  It was Lieutenant Laurel Hester's dying wish that her fight against discrimination would make a difference for all the same-sex couples across the country that face discrimination every day, discrimination that I don't face as a married woman.  I want to thank Sheila Nevins and HBO for making this film have a broadcast and a home on Cinemax later this year.  To my husband Matthew Syrett, who took care of our children and held down a full-time job so that we could make this film.  And to our incredible team in New York, thank you so much.

VANESSA ROTH:
And to all our supporters and our families who believed even a thirty-eight minute movie could change minds and lives, and our children who remind us about what's really important.  And to Stacie, who's here tonight, who's really auto mechanic by day but hero in life who always did what was right.  And she's here tonight.  So thank you so much.  Thank you.

CYNTHIA WADE:
Thank you, Stacie.  Thank you.

[Ed. note:  The active-duty military personnel who presented were pre-taped at the Al Faw Palace in Baghdad, Iraq.]

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