WATCH: Aisha Tyler Tearfully Explains Why Love 'Is Worth Fighting For'

Aisha Tyler choked back tears as she urged those who champion LGBT rights, "Never stop believing. Never stop working. Never stop fighting."

A sustained, standing ovation for The Talk co-host followed her dramatic acceptance speech at last week’s Lambda Legal West Coast Liberty Awards.

Tyler received the Celebrity in the Spotlight Award from last year's recipient, her friend actor Dan Bucatinsky of The Comeback. Then she delivered an impassioned address to the legal organization, which is at the forefront of advocacy in LGBT rights.

“I am here because I believe in love, in all its magical and transformative forms,” Tyler said. “I believe in freedom. The freedom to be the architect of our own destinies. The uniquely American principle that we all deserve to pursue happiness, in our own specific and personal way.”

In her tearful speech, Tyler stressed the importance of intersectionality, and how the fight for love and freedom is shared by different minority groups.

“We have all fought so that people of color, and women, and interracial couples, and gays and so many others can live a life free from enslavement, coercion, restriction, or judgment. A life filled with freedom, filled with choice, filled with possibility, filled with love,” she continued. “I believe in love. I believe it is worth fighting for.”

Tyler was among several prominent honorees at the reception, which was held Thursday evening at the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire. Laurie Hasencamp, a prominent activist whose resume includes work for GLSEN as well as for HIV and AIDS organizations, was honored with a Liberty Award presented by Red Band Society actor and former GLAAD spokesman Wilson Cruz. 

Dru Levasseur, Lambda Legal's Transgender Rights Project Director, presented an award to Transparent’s Bradley Whitford, Amy Landecker, Rhys Ernst, and Zackary Drucker, who accepted on behalf of the Amazon show and its creator, Jill Soloway.

Drucker pointed out that Transparent marks “the first time a transgender story is built with trans people participating in every stage of development. Representation is paramount to social change, and Transparent is the first step, a necessary step, towards our liberation as a people."

Another honoree, transgender teen Elliott Fuerst, brought down the house with his stirring account of breaking down barriers at his former high school in Westchester County, New York.

Other special guests included host Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Greg Louganis (Back on Board), Danny Franzese (Looking), Ryan Kelley (Teen Wolf), Brendan Robinson (Pretty Little Liars), Aaron and Austin Rhodes (Scream Queens), Charley Koontz (CSI: Cyber), Diona Weasonover (Clipped), Scott Evans (Before We Go), Jill Whelan (The Love Boat), Jacqueline Tobani (Grimm), Lambda Legal Western Regional Director Rick Davis, and Liberty Awards Co-chairs Sheri Bonstelle and Randy Wright.

See Tyler’s love-filled speech below. And learn more about Lambda Legal's fight for LGBT equality, including its #IDo campaign, here.