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LGBTQ+ stars shined at last night’s Emmy Awards. Here are the highlights…

Out queer actors, directors, and creatives snagged big wins and made meny memorable moments at the annual awards event.
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LGBTQ+ stars shined at last night’s Emmy Awards. Here are the highlights…
Photo: ABC

On a night where Shōgun reigned supreme, LGBTQ+ stars sparkled through the dross of the 73rd annual Emmy Awards, a show that ended on time and was relatively subdued by Hollywood’s self-congratulatory standards.

Hosted by father and gay son duo Eugene and Dan Levy, visibility was a given and bisexual was the byword.

Related:

Winners call for more visibility for trans & drag stories at 75th Emmy Awards

“The world urgently needs culture-changing stories about transgender people.”

Surprise Netflix hit Baby Reindeer, the autobiographical miniseries from bisexual actor Richard Gadd about his experiences with a stalker, took home the award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Gadd also won for Lead Actor and Writing.

Gadd’s lesbian co-star Jessica Gunning picked up the award for Best Supporting Actress in the category. The show also won for casting and editing at the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend.

RuPaul’s Drag Race got a drubbing as the long-running reality series lost to Peacock’s The Traitors for Outstanding Reality Competition. It was a second win for the show’s bi host and producer, actor Alan Cumming—he also picked up a statuette for Outstanding Host of a Reality or Reality Competition Show at the Creative Arts ceremony.

Cumming’s coup ended an eight-year streak in the same category for RuPaul on her eponymous show. The popular Scottish actor has been nominated four times before, for The Good Wife and as host of the Tony Awards broadcast.

Jodie Foster won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series, the first acting Emmy of her storied career, for her reliably gripping performance in the otherwise confounding fourth iteration of HBO’s True Detective anthology series. She’s previously picked up Emmy nods for directing on Orange is the New Black and producing The Baby Dance.

Foster thanked her wife and told her kids to remember that “Love and work equals art.” A pan to queer actress Holland Taylor and her spouse Sarah Paulson in the audience provided a sweet recognition of another pair of Hollywood wives.

Gay songwriter Benj Pasek, along with his straight collaborative partner Justin Paul, became the 20th and 21st creatives to earn EGOT status with their win for Best Original Song for “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It,” a tune featured in the Hulu mystery series Only Murders in the Building. The Emmy win follows Grammy and Tony Awards for their musical Dear Evan Hansen and an Oscar for their song “City of Stars” in the 2016 movie La La Land. 

When accepting this year’s Governor’s Award, gay writer and producer Greg Berlanti—a TV creator responsible for so many iconic TV moments, including the first on-screen kiss between two gay characters on his first show, Dawson’s Creek—told the story of LGBTQ+ visibility on television.

“There wasn’t a lot of gay characters on television back then, and I was a closeted gay kid, and it’s hard to describe how lonely that was at the time,” Berlanti said. “There was no internet to connect with other queer kids, no LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in schools. Back then, the only way to tell if another kid might be gay was if he also watched Dynasty, Dallas and could name all four of The Golden Girls.”

It wasn’t until the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Berlanti continued, that he saw gay men on television “holding hands with other men, marching and fighting for their rights.”

“They gave me hope that I might one day have their courage to come out and share my truth with the world,” Berlanti said.

Mostly overlooked: the gayest show of the last TV season, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, only managed to snag the award for Outstanding Period Costumes for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at last week’s Creative Arts Emmys.

The second most overlooked gay show was Ripley, Steven Zaillian’s longform adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 homoerotic novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. The adaptation pulled in an Emmy for Best Director of a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. The series also snagged Creative Arts wins for Outstanding Cinematography, Sound Editing and Special Visual Effects.

Emmy watchers also got a trans visibility two-fer on the red carpet: trans actress Nava Mau, nominated for her role as Richard Gadd’s maybe-girlfriend in Baby Reindeer, had a moment with beloved Orange Is the New Black actress and red carpet host Laverne Cox.

“I’m supposed to keep it together, I’m the host,” a teary-eyed Cox told Mau.

“I’m so proud of you. This show is so incredible, and the work that you do is so amazing,” Cox gushed. “Ten years ago, I became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an acting Emmy, and ten years later, I’m not the last.”

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Alan Cumming Greg Berlanti Jodie Foster Laverne Cox RuPaul

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