Today, the 2017 Emmy Award nominations were announced. For those that don't know, the Emmy Awards recognition talent in television (Oscars are for the movies). While racial representation is often a hot topic around award season, it's important to recognize another minorities, including the LGBT community.
Fortunately, the 2017 Emmy nominations were more queer than ever: from out actors to gay/lesbian/trans characters, there was plenty of visibility in television last year.
Both Lily Tomlin and Evan Rachel Wood nabbed noms for lead roles in Grace and Frankie and Westworld, respectively. In the supporting actress categories, Samira Wiley was nominated for the dystopian drama The Handmaid's Tale, and in comedy Kate McKinnon for Saturday Night Live and Titus Burgess for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
While not queer himself, Jeffrey Tambour was nominated (again) for his role as trans woman Maura Pfefferman in Transparent. Surprisingly, the show itself was not nominated in the drama category. Neither was Orange Is the New Black (for comedy), which has historically represented storylines across the LGBT spectrum, and most notably for launching the career of trans actress Laverne Cox, who was nominated for Best Guest Appearance for her role in the show.
Everyone's favorite drag competition show, RuPaul's Drag Race, scored a whopping eight nominations. This following RuPaul's win of best Reality Competition Host last year, and the show's new home network, VH1.
RuPaul's Drag Race, with the reality competition show garnering eight nominations, including for Outstanding Reality Competition and for Reality Competition Host, which RuPaul won last year.
While there is plenty of room for more within an ever expanding industry, it's important to appreciate how far we've come.