LGBTQ+ nominees viewed in a fresh, important way

This Emmy cycle has set a striking new standard for inclusivity.

Broadly and deeply across all acting categories, LGBTQIA performers have been honored by the Television Academy. Previous nominees such as Bowen Yang (“Saturday Night Live”), Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”) and Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”) are joined by debutants such as Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer (“Fellow Travelers”), Andrew Scott (“ Ripley”) and Lily Gladstone (“Under the Bridge”). Three stars of “Baby Reindeer” – Richard Gadd, a bisexual; Jessica Gunning, a lesbian; and Nava Mau, a trans woman – were nominated. And Gunning and Mau join Gladstone, who uses they/them pronouns, and “True Detective: Night Country” star Kali Reis, who identifies as two-spirit, in best supporting actress in a limited series category. Reis’ co-star Jodie Foster is also nominated, as are real-life couple Holland Taylor (“The Morning Show”) and Sarah Paulson (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”). Variety’s Clayton Davis notes that Taylor and Paulson are the first queer couple to be nominated for acting Emmys in the same year.

The list could go on – and yet it is less interesting in itself than the circumstances that made it possible. Several of these artists have been nominated not only as queer actors, but for roles that embrace their identities and connect to queer storytelling. Einbinder, for example, is a bisexual woman playing a bisexual woman — and her “Hacks” character, Ava, spent the third season figuring out what she wanted, both in love and professionally. (Her team-up with a politically conservative golfer, played by Christina Hendricks, made for one of the downright funniest set pieces of the season, as Ava realizes there are some places she isn’t willing to go out of lust.)

Yang’s sensitivity as a gay culture consumer colors each of his “Weekend Update” desk pieces, while both “Fellow Travelers” – explicitly about gay men’s journey through mid-century American history – and “Ripley” – obliquely exploring complicated sexuality of a much more reclusive mid-century American – draws friction and heat from the actors in their midst. And the confessional, “Baby Reindeer,” is directly about Gadd’s real-life journey in discovering his feelings about his sexuality.

We are still a long way from, say, ‘Will & Grace’ or ‘Angels in America’, for which Eric McCormack and then Al Pacino and Jeffrey Wright won an Emmy for acting in 2001 and 2004 respectively. It doesn’t detract from these memorable and stellar performances — which deservedly won an Emmy in their moments, and both projects are very powerful in shifting the culture toward widespread acceptance of queer people — to note that a show like ‘Baby Reindeer ‘ or as ‘Hacks’ an extra dose of power by showing the perspective of someone who has experienced something like that.

While those older shows were breakthroughs, there have been other signature moments that marked the Academy’s progress — like gay actor Billy Porter winning a trophy for “Pose” in 2019, or transgender Michaela Jaé Rodriguez getting a nomination in 2021 . This year didn’t change everything: Yang, Edebiri and Einbinder have been here before. That includes Paulson, on several (sometimes deliriously campy) Ryan Murphy projects.

But what’s striking this year is how many different notes the queer-nominated artists are able to achieve across series across genres and TV landscapes. It’s a bit funny to lump ‘Baby Reindeer’ and ‘Hacks’ together, which have little more in common than performers playing off their real-life sexuality to tell stories: The former plays Gadd’s personal story as a painful , fraught drama that is ultimately shot through with redemption, as Ava’s explorations into dating start from a place of humor and make their way to a heartfelt place. While Ripley isn’t gone (or necessarily queer – his sexuality is tortured, to say the least), Scott finds his way in; Bailey and Bomer build a believable, compelling romance. These all represent what is possible when you let queer people tell their own stories.

Progress also makes itself known in a different way at the Emmys this year. Taylor’s real identity is not so much reflected in her character on “The Morning Show” as her authoritative demeanor, her sharp diction, her clear and delightful comfort in getting into her own skin. Taylor is an Emmy favorite dating back to her 1999 supporting actress win in “The Practice”; she was later nominated four times for her work on “Two and a Half Men.” And most of her nominations came before her 2015 release. Taylor was a strange actor who racked up Emmy nominations and a win without the viewers at home realizing it.
Her presence as an out-queer woman, along with so many other artists like her, may inspire more and more actors in the future to live openly as themselves. As this year’s Emmy nominations prove, there will be room for them at the table.