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Editor’s note: Alison Hope Author featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Slate and more. The views expressed here are those of the author.read more opinions on CNN.
CNN
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When Ryan Murphy won the Carol Burnett Award at this week’s Golden Globe Awards, he thanked neither his mother nor God. He broke barriers at last year’s (non-television) Golden Globe Awards with award-winning gay actor Billy Porter, who presented Murphy in a transcendent tuxedo gown, becoming the first trans actress to win a Golden Globe. Thank you to Globe Award-winning trans actress MJ Rodriguez. .
Murphy went on to mention their achievements, naming Niecy Nash Betts, Matt Bomer, and Jeremy Pope by name and where they were from, as well as Porter and Rodriguez. called the Beacon of Progress.
Murphy’s emotional speech on the evolution of queer representation in entertainment began with standing in a celebrity room urging Rodriguez to deliver a televised standing ovation he didn’t get last year, queer people It was a powerful reminder that is being talked about very often. We have worked for a long time when they are not in the room, but they are not acknowledged.
It was also an incredibly inspiring moment, queering a major Hollywood event. From movies like “Tár” to shows like “Sort Of,” it’s a rainbow punctuation mark of a growing number of works of art that showcase the creative power of LGBTQ storytelling. and expressed.
It is clear that culture, perhaps inevitably, now carries the weight of progress. Murphy’s speech was a particularly bright spot in an increasingly dark political moment for LGBTQ Americans.
A recent Pew Research poll found that a majority of Republicans and a majority of Americans, including black Americans, believe that gender is determined by the sex assigned at birth, regardless of political party. , complicating the efforts of the LGBTQ advocacy community, who are applauding against a series of bills blocking access to health care and sports for trans people. The increasing talk about “detransitioning” transgender people does not solve the problem. This is a very small event in the ongoing culture war being exploited into legislation against transgender and she LGBTQ Americans.
transgender youth who feel their governments do not want them to access potentially life-saving health care; queer teachers who are forced to hide their spouse’s photo at work; Or for a child with two fearful mothers. Whether it was bullying or the future of the family, the political world became a battlefield. Extremist right-wing leaders are weaponizing classrooms, clinics, sports stadiums and public gathering places.
Against this backdrop, these cultural moments — Rodriguez receiving a standing ovation in real life and Cate Blanchett playing a powerful and flawed protagonist in fiction — are giving some much-needed respite. They give LGBTQ people hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that they can be celebrated on and off screen as complex, imperfect and beautiful human beings just like everyone else. .
Murphy’s hopeful speech, which lifts queer role models, is refreshing in contrast to all the vitriol. It amplifies recent and ongoing LGBTQ interests in pop culture and entertainment.
Netflix’s Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp recently appeared in a Tik Tok video. HBO’s ‘Sort Of’ is the freshest queer show I’ve seen in a long time, centered around non-binary, queer Pakistani-Canadian actor Bilal Baig. (HBO shares a parent company with his CNN.)
A rich and textured Oscar frontrunner, ‘Tar’ is an important step in the mainstream development of portrayals of queer characters. Take Blanchett in 2015’s stunning ‘Carol’. At the time, it was a landmark cinematic moment centered around queer representation, yet steeped in a tragic plot of punishment for being LGBTQ. In the film based on Blanchett’s role as a divorced 1950s housewife, the ultimate price of being her true self when she becomes embroiled in a relationship with a woman (played by Rooney Mara). pay the Loss of custody of her daughter.
Seven years later, in “Tár,” the same great actor faces epic tragedy, but with a big difference. That means undoing is all she does, regardless of her LGBTQ status. The main character, Lydia Tarr, is an abusive, accomplished composer and musician who happens to be a lesbian.
Blanchett’s growth as an on-screen lesbian (she’s Cate Blanchett, so I’ll forgive her not being a lesbian in real life) and Murphy’s spotlight moment at this week’s Golden Globes is something I It shows that we have arrived. You can create mainstream blockbusters that stage queer representation without resorting to tropes or typecasting.
Advocating for yourself is a huge step towards creating the next generation of confident LGBTQ Americans and their families. Whether these moments will be enough to make a broader leap forward for LGBTQ equality remains to be seen, especially in the context of the current right-wing American political climate.
“Being an LGBTQ kid in America is really hard all over the world,” Murphy said. “I’ve often been told you’ll be nothing. To survive, you have to hide your life. But for the kids watching tonight, MJ and Billy are examples of what’s possible.” and Niecy and Matt and Jeremy. There’s a way forward.”
Murphy’s career success, alongside other queer Hollywood A-listers he’s verbally admired, is a testament to how we’ve moved forward. No matter how much conflicting political hell tries to hold us back from progress, pop culture shows us that we may have gone too far and are now irreversible.
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