Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette is thinking a lot about her younger sister Alexis this weekend. Arquette was presented with the Vanguard Award in Saturday (1 April) at the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles for her staunch support of the LGBTQ community. Arquette told The Hollywood Reporter,

“Alexis taught us all about acceptance and love. To me, Alexis was really my great vanguard. I think truthfully, every single trans person in the United States is a vanguard because it’s a very difficult life to live.

We are all really heartbroken about it. It has taken me a long time (to talk about it). I’m still not quite there. It’s very raw and will probably always be hard. You have certain loves of your life, deep loves with people who really impact you. People you care so much about. They change you. Alexis was that to each one of us. The spirit of Alexis will always be alive.“

Patricia also says Donald Trump isn’t the LGBTQ ally he claimed he was,

“Right now there is a mounting assault against the LGBTQ community so ready or not, you have to talk about it. Alexis talked to me about wanting to see a time when you could go into a real estate office and your realtor would be a trans man or trans woman. Or you could see a cop or a McDonald’s employee that is trans. We are so far from that today.“

Alexis was in films such as The Wedding Singer, Pulp Fiction, Of Mice and Men, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Grief, Threesome, I Think I Do and Bride of Chucky, among others, but her career suffered after she came out publicly as transgender.

When her late sibling was not included in this year’s Academy Awards In Memoriam, Patricia spoke out.

“It’s really unfortunate that the Oscars decided they couldn’t show a trans person who was such an important person in this community. Because—trans kids—it could have meant a lot to them.“

Alexis died last September of complications from AIDS at the age of 47. (Photo, John Shearer/WireImage; via Gay Star News)