To those who expected Foster to announce publicly that she is gay, the speech was likely a disappointment. Certainly celebrity news opportunists like Harvey Levin and Perez Hilton were deleting hastily written posts for their websites when Foster said little more than "I'm single" as her big announcement. The subsequent outcry from some in the LGBTQ was perhaps far more surprising than Foster's refusal to publicly come out.
These award shows don't celebrate real women, or those who work to advance our interests. It's fine for a character in a movie to go against the norm in Hollywood, but when the actress who portrays her accepts an award wearing a low-cut dress, thus bowing to Hollywood convention, I put a little less stock in her ability to influence the perception of women or their roles in society.