Jeffrey Tambor Emmy Acceptance Speech: 5 Biggest Moments For Transgender Community On Television [VIDEO]
Jeffrey Tambor marked a big moment for the Transgender Community when he won his second Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of Trans character Maura Pfefferman on Amazon's Transparent, and his speech has touched off more conversation about the roles of the Trans Community in television.
During his speech, Tambor called for casting directors and producers to take a stand in favor of the community, by hiring more Transgender actors and talent a chance to tell their stories, and also said he hoped he would be the last cisgender male to portray a female trans character.
His speech highlighted that there is still a very long way to go when it comes to the Trans Community potentially being as fully embraced as the LGB communities have been in television, though his second win for his role does also show that some strides have been made to make his wish possible. Here are the five other biggest moments for the Trans Community on TV in recent years.
Laverne Cox Is Nominated For An Emmy For Orange is The New Black
Laverne Cox, who portrays Transgender inmate Sophia Burset on Netflix's Orange is the New Black, and often uses her role to bring attention to Trans rights, made history as the first openly Transgender actor or actress to receive a Primetime Emmy nomination back in 2014. She has since won several other honors for her activism and work, and continues to be a trailblazer, with plans to be the first Transgender actor to portray a regular Transgender character on a Network television show when CBS premieres Doubt.
Freeform Orders A New Transgender Drama Series
The network formerly known as ABC Family announced plans to develop a drama series titled New People earlier this year, which is set to tell the story of a transgender girl, her identical twin brother, and their family, which is loosely based off the novel Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of An American Family. It is unclear if the series will be officially greenlit beyond a development or pilot stage, or if it will cast a Transgender actor in the lead role, but the decision to go for it on a network that is owned by Disney and tends to air shows geared towards a Teen and Young Adult audience could be a smart move.
The Bold and the Beautiful Makes Daytime History
The Bold and the Beautiful took on a Transgender storyline when it revealed that character Maya Avant-Forrester (portrayed by Karla Mosley), was Trans and had been born Myron. Though the show did initially get some criticism for changing Maya's already established history to accommodate the new storyline, as well as for introducing it to a character portrayed by a Cisgender woman, it also received praise for showing the struggles of being accepted through the introduction of Maya's parents, and then broke ground when Maya still married Rick Forrester in a summer episode, marking the first Transgender character in television history to marry and be given a wedding.
I Am Jazz & Becoming Us Debut
The fictional television landscape hasn't been the only one to start embracing the Trans community, as the reality show landscape has also opened to them more by telling the real stories of Transgender people. Freeform debuted Becoming Us in 2015, which followed the story of the Lehwald Family, who's father has just come out as a trans woman, as well as Ben Lehwald's girlfriend Danielle's family, because her father was also transgender. TLC debuted I Am Jazz, which follows the story of Transgender Teen Activist Jazz Jennings and her family that same summer, marking two reality shows on cable TV which looked at the dynamics of a family where one of the members was Transgender.
Caitlyn Jenner
Love her or hate her (and despite her show not be being picked up for a third season), Caitlyn Jenner was also groundbreaking in recent years for her public transition. Formerly known as Bruce Jenner, and being famous as a part of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, she made waves for coming out because of her previous status as a revered Olympian.
