The nominations for the FX series marks significant breakthrough for the transgender community.
Pose continues to make history.
Ryan Murphy and Steven Canal’s FX series about LGBTQ people of color in New York City’s ballroom scene is nominated for six awards, marking a significant breakthrough for transgender visibility and representation on TV. The news came as the Television Academy announced the official nominees for the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards on Tuesday.
Pose is up for top prizes, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Billy Porter. The series was also nominated in several technical categories.
“The Category Is: Speechless! I’m so grateful to have lived long enough to see this day,” Porter said in a statement to ET. “Pose speaks a truth that has to power to transform hearts and minds. I’m honored and humbled to be counted in the number.”
When the series was first announced in 2017, it made history by casting five transgender actresses in series regular roles, while also purportedly having the largest LGBTQ presence on a primetime series. Following its debut last summer, Pose has picked up nominations for the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, Golden Globes and MTV Movie & TV Awards while also winning a 2018 Peabody Award.
Now in the middle of its second, acclaimed season, Pose was recently renewed for season three.
Prior to Tuesday, Laverne Cox was the only transgender performer ever to be nominated for a primetime acting Emmy -- in 2014 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy for Orange Is the New Black. Two years later, Joanna Fang became the first transgender person to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera) for her work on the documentary Cartel Land.
Ahead of the nominations, actress Mj Rodriguez told ET that any recognition by the Television Academy would mean a lot “because that means the industry not only taking LGBTQ lives seriously, they’re taking trans women of color lives seriously. They’re also seeing that we’re not one-dimensional anymore.”
Shortly after the nominations were announced, the cast took to social media to celebrate.
The 71st Emmy Awards will be handed out live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 22 on FOX. Check out ET Live and ETonline for ongoing coverage of the awards.
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