Trans Emmy nomination just the start
When the Emmy nominations were announced on Tuesday, July 13, Mj Rodriguez made history as the first transgender performer to be nominated in a lead acting category for her role as
Mother Blanca Evangelista on the FX series “Pose.”
Rodriguez is only the third openly trans performer to be nominated for an Emmy, after Laverne Cox’s three nominations in the guest drama actress category for “Orange Is the New Black” from 2014 to 2020 and Rain Valdez’s shortform comedy or drama actress nomination for “Razor Tongue” in 2020.
Since “Pose” premiered in 2018, it has broken new ground as a series centered on the lives of trans women of color in New York’s ballroom scene of the 1980s and ’90s. The world of vogue balls, which were famously captured in Jenny Livingston’s awardwinning 1990 documentary “Paris Is Burning,” is known for extravagant competition categories that play on exaggerated gender archetypes and consumerist tropes (much of the language on the hit show “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” also a nominee at the 2021 Emmys, is informed by ballroom vernacular).
Over three seasons, “Pose” had all the splash and production value you’d expect from creators Ryan Murphy (“Halston,” “Glee”), Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals — but the creative hands of Emmynominated producers/writers/directors Our Lady J and Janet Mock, who are both trans, guided the series’ storytelling and philosophy.
Rodriguez’s Blanca, an HIVpositive nurse and mother to the House of Evangelista, was the soul of the series. Rodriguez’s ability to go from the extravagant fantasies of the show’s ballroom competitions to truetolife scenes dealing with transphobia, HIV/AIDS and life as a woman of color is long overdue for acknowledgment by Emmy voters. That nod is being felt in parts of the Bay Area’s transgender community.
“When your sister is celebrated, you feel like your whole community is being celebrated,” says Juniper Yun, the director of cultural affairs for San Francisco’s Transgender District. “Her nomination is groundbreaking. This type of recognition will hopefully lead to more opportunities for us to tell our own stories.”
For Yun, seeing trans women recognized for playing trans roles is a rewarding and necessary sign of progress, especially after decades of cisgender actors being honored for playing transgender characters — a practice long condemned by trans and gendernonconforming performers.
“As a trans Afro Latina woman, Mj was able to give life to Blanca’s whole character, whose story most likely in some ways is modeled after her own experiences,” Yun says.
Rodriguez’s nomination feels overdue after her work over the course of the show. But it also feels insufficient when all three of the series’ leading trans/ nonbinary performers gave awardworthy performances. Indya Moore’s character, Angel, was heavily imbued with the aspirations of a trans community beginning to take a more prominent place in public life during the era in which “Pose” is set. The subtlety of Moore’s performance allowed Angel to take off in the narrative, especially during the third season, as Angel came to terms with having a degree of professional success and family stability, unusual for trans women of color at the time.
Then there’s Dominique Jackson’s turn as the legendary house mother and ballroom diva Elektra Abundance Evangelista Wintour: The actor displayed a Shakespeareanlike force and delivery when her character faced adversity, bombarding enemies with verbal hurricanes of dramatic insult. With Jackson’s skill in comedy and genuine pathos, what could have been a onenote Disney villain became a master class in balancing style with the essential truth of her character’s experiences.
Rodriguez’s more grounded performance is rightly being recognized as the glue of the show’s talented cast, but each of the three performers deserves recognition for the ultimate success of “Pose.” While Billy Porter’s 2019 best leading actor win for his role on the series, as the ballroom master of ceremonies Pray Tell, was certainly much deserved (he’s nominated again this year), Yun says the recognition of one of the show’s lead trans performers feels long delayed for all the acclaim the series has received.
After viewing the June 6 series finale, what I felt “Pose” got the most universally correct was the concept of queer family.
“Blanca’s character and Mj’s depiction reminds people that there are many types of motherhood,” Yun says. “Blanca represents that desire to be motherly and sisterly in a community where many people are abandoned by their blood families.”
The way the complicated chosen sibling and mother dynamics were presented on “Pose” is an experience that’s common in the LGBTQ community beyond just the ballroom scene. That depiction of family, with Rodriguez’s performance at its center, feels as new and lasting a legacy as the one the original “Will & Grace” left with its depiction of gay men after it went off the air in 2006. Let’s just hope Emmy voters recognize that.