JAY-Z's mother, Gloria Carter, gave a powerful speech at the GLAAD Media Awards last night.

The two were recognized for their work on JAY-Z's "Smile" from his acclaimed 4:44 album. Gloria comes out on the song, and at the end delivers an emotional poem about what it truly means to be free and comfortable in your own skin, regardless of societal pressures.

“Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian,” Jay raps on the song.

During her speech, Carter again emphasized that she's now free.

"Here I am. I’m loving, I’m respectful, I’m productive, and I’m a human being who has a right to love who I love,” Carter said. “So everybody, just smile, be free."

Jay-Z recently opened up about the joy he felt when his mother came out to him on a recent episode of David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. 

“Imagine having lived your life for someone else," he says during the interview. "And you think you’re protecting your kids. And for my mother to have to live as someone that she wasn’t and hide and like, protect her kids — and didn’t want to embarrass her kids, and you know, for all this time. And for her to sit in front of me and tell me, ‘I think I love someone.

You can check out the speech above.

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