A-lister Kristen Stewart, who is engaged to a woman, is a strong lead-actress contender for Spencer. But they will likely still yield more nominations for straight, cis actors playing queer roles.
To the studios’ credit, some of this year’s strongest overall Oscar contenders, including Netflix’s The Power of the Dog and Sony Classics’ Parallel Mothers, explore nuanced LGBTQ+ themes. “I don’t think that light bulb ever turned on for studios.” “Networks realized quickly that they were leaving money on the table when they didn’t include LGBTQ+ people in their storytelling,” he says, citing the commercial (and inclusive) smashes from showrunners like Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy.
“But it’s also just a reminder of how far we have to go for actual equality.”Ĭruz, who worked at GLAAD from 2012 to 2014, collaborating with TV networks and movie studios on improving LGBTQ+ representation, found the TV side of the equation more amenable to progress. “Whenever we hear a ‘first’ of anything, it’s cause for celebration,” says Clemons-Hopkins, the first openly nonbinary Emmy nominee. I’m ready to do it, and I’m ready to be the example for so many out there.” Porter, her Pose costar, had already made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ man to win the drama-lead-actor award in 2019, and both were among a significant crop of queer nominees in 2021, including Hacks star Carl Clemons-Hopkins. When Michaela Jaé Rodriguez became the first trans lead-acting Emmy nominee last year, she told me it was only the beginning: “I have so much more work to do. “Because, in television, the rules are already being broken.” “By the time there’s an out gay actor winning an Oscar, it’ll be a little bit of a yawn,” Condon says. In one part of Hollywood, at least, that generational change is already happening onscreen. I can list those people now in their 20s or 30s- stars-but this was the last generation where they stayed mostly in the closet.” “But it’s got to be an actor who can draw financing. “I’ve been trying to cast a movie with a middle-aged, 50-ish gay lead…and you want to work with a gay actor and insist on it,” he says. Condon, who is gay, adds that-even in an era where there’s great scrutiny on authentic casting-financial demands and generational setbacks complicate the process.