It seems like our complaints from last year’s Emmy season fell on deaf years.
Pose has been lauded for its LGBTQ+ representation, which is centered around New York’s LGBTQ ballroom scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s. In fact, the show made history when it premiered in 2018 for casting the most-ever trans actors in a TV series.
But again, the Television Academy failed to nominate any trans actresses, Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson and Hailie Sahar to the acting categories.
Jackson pointed out the snub on social media, posting a screenshot of a comment she left, reminding her followers that it’s “not about the Emmy when many people in the world put you on a pedestal,” she wrote in part. Jackson added the cast of Pose shows “millions that despite oppression we can succeed.”
For her part, Sahar wrote in a caption: “Together we stand with love as our guide.”
Rodriguez simply wrote on Twitter: “I love you all,” and Porter also took to his Instagram to share a lengthy response to his co-stars snubs.
“It took me a minute to process all of the conflicting thoughts I had about yesterday. A record number of Black actors received #Emmy nominations this year, myself included. For that, I am grateful,” he began. “I have been doing this for a long, long time. It has taken me 30 years to get recognized for my work…I know the pain of being overlooked so well. Too well.”
“When I look at my Emmy win last year, I see the exuberant joyfulness in the faces of my #Pose family. MY win is THEIR win. And just as we share in each other’s happiness, we all share in each other’s pain. For me, @poseonfx lives at the intersection of art and activism and that is important to me. But I am keenly aware that for my SISTERS – it is much, much deeper than that. This is the story of their LIVES.”
The Emmy award-winning actor ended his note by expressing love to his co-stars along with the show’s creators.
Porter was also the only actor to receive solo recognition from the series at the Golden Globes last year too. It seems he’s changed his tune from earlier this year, when he told critics to have “patience,” pointing to Rodriguez being nominated for a 2020 Critic’s Choice Awards. (Porter also received a solo nod.)
“Can we be grateful that it even exists?” he rhetorically asked ESSENCE.
“I find that so many people want to lean into the negative. It’s on the air! The story is being told,” Porter continues. “We got a third season. We get to build.”
Porter also said back in January that his being cisgender isn’t why he’s being recognized during awards season. It’s because he’s put in decades of work in Hollywood, from the stage to the big screen.
“I’ve been in the business for 30 years. That’s why I’m getting the attention. It just happens like that,” the former Kinky Boots star noted. “Patience, babies! I’m 50 years old. This is just happening for me.”
Pose was also nominated in four other categories, including Outstanding Period Costumes; Outstanding Period And/Or Character Hairstyling; Outstanding Period And/Or Character Makeup (Non-Prosthetic); and Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Limited Series, Movie Or Special.