‘Pose’ Could Make History at the Emmys

If you want a look at how far LGBTQ+ representation has grown in the past decade, look no further than the Emmys. It was only in 2014 that Laverne Cox made history as the first trans actor to ever be nominated for a major award. Now the Emmys has the chance to do it all over again. With Pose‘s nomination for Outstanding Drama Series and Mj Rodriguez’s nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress, Pose has the chance to become the first trans-led series to win a major Primetime Emmy award.

It’s almost shocking that we’ve gone so long without a trans actor winning a major Emmy, but here we are. Altogether, Cox was nominated four times for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her work in Orange Is the New Black: in 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2020. Though she did win a Daytime Emmy for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word in 2015, she lost the Primetime Emmy every time. Cox was then followed by Rain Valdez in 2020. Valdez’s work on Razor Tongue earned her a nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series.

Then there is Amazon’s Transparent. Before the allegations of sexual harassment were made against its star Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent paved the way for trans representation on TV. It was the first show explicitly about trans characters to win several major awards, including the Golden Globes for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy. It also won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. There’s another reason why those wins were important. They cemented Amazon as the first streaming service to win a major award.

Viewed together, Transparent and Cox and Valdez seem like two sides of the same coin. With Transparent, the major awards nominations and wins were there, but Transparent as a piece of queer media is riddled with problems. Though Joey Soloway has since come out as non-binary, the show’s central trans narrative was portrayed by a cis actor and often told through the lens of other cis characters. With Cox and Valdez, trans actors were acknowledged for telling trans stories, but these nominations didn’t have the heft of major categories like Outstanding Comedy or an Outstanding Lead Actress. Pose has both.

Pose is nominated for three of the biggest Emmys of this year: Outstanding Drama Series, Billy Porter for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Mj Rodriguez for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Additionally Steven Canals has been nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series, and Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Steven Canals, Janet Mock, and Our Lady J are nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Those are some of the biggest awards of the night. If Mj Rodriguez were to win, she would be the first trans actor to win a Primetime Emmy in any category. If Pose were to win, it would signal something even more notable. For the first time ever a show about and created by trans people of color would take home the Outstanding Drama award, one of the most coveted honors in all of Hollywood.

Pose has earned its place at the top. Season 3’s finale is a lovely, soulful ending to a fairytale, an episode that walks the fine line between feeling like a Cinderella story yet never pulling away from the homophobia, transphobia, racism, classism, and HIV fears that plagued this time. And we’ve seen this show make history before. In 2019 Billy Porter became the first openly gay Black man to be nominated for and win a leading acting category. Let Pose go out in a wave of awards. This lovely show deserves the love.

Where to stream Pose