Emmy award winner Jill Soloway, director, writer, and creator of Amazon’s Transparent, turned the awards stage into a political one this year by calling for support of transgender equality legislation.
Soloway, who won the award for Best Directing for a Comedy Series, said that “we have a trans civil rights problem” in this country.
“We don’t have a trans tipping point,” she said, “we have a trans civil rights problem.”
The show is based on Soloway’s own transgender parent, whom she calls “Moppa.”
“Something interesting about my Moppa,” Soloway said. “She could, tomorrow, go and try to find an apartment and in 32 states it would be legal for the landlord to look her in the eye and say, ‘We don’t rent to trans people.’”
Soloway later urged viewers to visit transequality.org, the website for the National Center for Transgender Equality, and to support the Equality Act, a bill that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act and other federal law to add “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to a list of legal protections from discrimination.
Jeffrey Tambor, the star of Transparent, also used his time on stage to voice support for gender equality when he accepted the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy.
“I’d like to dedicate my performance and this award to the transgender community,” Tambor said. “Thank you for your patience, thank you for your courage, thank you for your stories, thank you for your inspiration, thank you for letting us be part of the change.”
Watch both Emmys acceptance speeches by Soloway and Tambor below:
