Miley Cyrus helped raise $50,000 in charity at the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Vanguard Award event on Saturday by licking a piano, donated by "Orange Is The New Black" star Ruby Rose, to help auction it off.
Linda Perry, who took the stage during the event to hold an auction, asked the signer to lick a white piano in order to help raise the bids. Cyrus's licking the piano trick worked, as the winning bid bought the musical instrument for $50,000.
Miley, who is also a gay rights activist, was honored at the 46th Anniversary Gala Vanguard Awards hosted by the Los Angeles LGBT Center at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. She was presented with the Vanguard Award for her work with Happy Hippie and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, reported PinkNews.
"I want all of you to know that I feel beyond grateful to be in a room full of so many people who care so much about others because, unfortunately, that is way too rare in the world that we live in today," Cyrus said in her acceptance speech.
"I'm thinking of tonight not as celebrating what we've already done, but what we're doing and what we're going to do in the future."
According to the Huffington Post, Cyrus, while speaking about the challenges faced by homeless LGBT people, said, "There are more than 1.6 million runaway or homeless young people in the U.S. each year with 40 percent of homeless youth identifying as LGBTQ."
"And in just Hollywood where we are all sitting, royally with all of our food in front of us and all of these fancy ass clothes...something didn't really feel quite right about it when we're in a city where there are more than 6,100 homeless people under the age of 24 on the streets on any given day and more than one in four of these people have experienced hate crimes due to their race, sexual orientation or their gender identity."
The singer talked about visiting the Center for the first time, saying "Given the opportunity to sit in on one of the support groups, I walked away with the feeling of self love that I had never been able to give myself before.
"The LGBT Center had the key to the lock on my cage and they set me free and I want to continue to do the same for others," reported USMagazine.
