Not only has Courtney Love long been regarded as a style icon, but she’s also famous for making her opinion on a wide range of subjects known. It makes total sense, then, that the legendary Hole frontwoman used a win at the VH1 Fashion Awards to denounce homophobia.
Presented with the award for 1997’s best personal style by none other than Bono (still triggered by that time he uploaded his album to our phones sans consent tbh), Love took to the stage in a pink ruched Versace dress, where she thanks her ‘fairy godmother’ Donatella and revered make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin for her drag.
Going from grunge icon to old school Hollywood-inspired starlet at some point in the mid-90s, Love beat the likes of Kate Moss, Cameron Diaz, and queen of all-American normcore style Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, who were also in the running, to take home the prize.
After also giving then-baby Frances Bean Cobain a shout-out, Love jokes that she was going to talk about opting for hemp over fur, but instead uses her moment on-stage to call out the oppression gay people around the world are faced with.
“I feel like keeping gay people in the closet with our attitudes and our actions is cruel and it’s tacky and most of all it’s boring. I think we really need to respect each other and ourselves and respect who we are and what were are and not be afraid to be who we are whether we’re gay or straight or… insane,” she deadpans. “It’s 1997 and respecting each other’s sexuality is the coolest thing I can think of, apart from wearing hemp and not wearing fur.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves – in 2020, the message still stands.
Watch the full video above and revisit our 2011 Courtney Love shoot below.