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Katy Perry receives Hero award

Dec 3, 2012, 15:03 GMT

Katy Perry in a nude dress at the Trevor Project\'s annual awards ceremony

Katy Perry has received an accolade in recognition of her work with the LGBT community.

The 28-year-old singer received the Trevor Hero Award from the Trevor Project - a non-profit company which offers suicide-prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth - at the organisation's annual awards ceremony at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles last night (02.12.12).

Taking to the stage to accept the prize, Katy told the audience: 'Thank you so much for this incredibly humbling award and this honour. I'm really proud to be honoured by the Trevor Project as a Trevor Hero. Honestly though, I think we all know that the real heroes are the folks at the call centres.

'I got to meet them the other day and they took me through the process and it was incredibly inspiring. I asked many questions and learned many things.'

The brunette beauty - who had a strict Christian upbringing from her pastor mother and father - praised the Trevor Project for changing her mindset on the LGBT community after growing up thinking members of the group were an 'abomination'.

She added: 'The organisation has educated me so much. I grew up in a very intolerant environment and for a long time I was told that people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) were an abomination. But when I started to ask questions it was hard to find an answer which made rational sense from the bubble around me. As I've grown up I've freed myself from that mindset.

'Coming from where I came from, I never thought that the LGBTQ community would be so intricately woven into my everyday life.'

Abbe Land, the executive director of the Trevor Project, praised Katy for 'empowering' LGBT youth.

She added: 'Her song 'Firework' is all about empowering youth to just be who they are, and that's what we try to do is make sure that when a young person reaches out to us. We are there to say, 'The way you are is perfect. Just be the way you are.' '

Other stars to attend the event included Anna Kendrick, Chris Colfer, Zoe Saldana, James Van Der Beek, Amy Poehler, Zachary Quinto, Derek Hough and Kristin Chenoweth.