LGBTQ+ stars and stories are finally getting their flowers at the Emmys – and it’s about time

It’s probably no surprise to queer people with a television, but the 2024 Emmy nominations list is full of LGBTQ+ stars and stories.

It feels like a turning point: the community is no longer just being represented by the TV industry, we are leading the conversation. There’s still plenty of work to do, of course – fewer than 10 per cent of series regulars on TV are LGBTQ+ – but all the good stuff? That’s coming straight from us. The Emmys prove it.

Netflix’s queer thriller Baby Reindeer, including all three leading LGBTQ+ stars Richard Gadd, Nava Mau and Jessica Gunning, got 11 nods in total. Mau’s is a historic one at that, as she’s the first trans actress to get an acting nomination in a limited series category.

Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer are up for their roles in gay historical drama Fellow Travelers. Cheesy enemies-to-lovers film Red, White & Royal Blue is up for television movie. RuPaul is now tied with Heidi Klum for the most-nominated star of all time in the outstanding host for a reality or competition programme category. Drag Race itself bagged 10 nominations in total.

Four of the five stars in the best actor in a limited or anthology series category are queer. Jodie Foster is nominated. So is Ayo Edebiri, as are Sarah Paulson and her partner Holland Taylor. Bowen Yang. Lily Gladstone. For fans who have spent decades longing for that much-discussed representation, it’s a little emotional.

There’s a real mix among that lot. In Bomer and Bailey’s Fellow Travelers, the perils and pleasures of being queer from mid-way through the 20th century came to life. Red, White & Blue is essentially raunchy fan-fic where a bisexual son of the US president meets a gay prince, bringing a whole new meaning to kneeling before royalty. These are explicitly queer stories getting their moment in the spotlight.

On the other hand, LGBTQ+ stars are also thriving in roles where their sexuality is straight, ambiguous, or hardly part of the plot at all.

Edebiri’s nom is for her turn as chef Sydney in The Bear, which received 23 nominations. She’s a force in it, but the show could hardly be any more gruffly heterosexual if it tried. Foster’s is for her role as detective Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country where, for a time, she was married to a man (spoiler alert: a sexual awakening is not why she’s no longer wed).

It’s part of an ongoing trend of course. You’d be hard pushed now to find a proper mainstream TV show with absolutely no queer cast or characters. In 2021, Pose actress MJ Rodriguez become the first trans woman to get a best actress nomination, while non-binary stars Bella Ramsey and Emma D’Arcy have racked up nods in recent years at the Emmys and other leading award shows.

But this year’s Emmy nominations list just feels like a levelling up, a recognition of how much LGBTQ+ stars, and those beavering away in writers’ rooms and production studios, are contributing to today’s popular culture.

Obviously, we shouldn’t jump the gun and light the fireworks too early. When the ceremony rolls around in September, it’s highly unlikely that all the queer stars and series will bag wins. It’s possible, even, that none of them will: remember It’s A Sin’s shocking BAFTA snub in 2022?

All the while we’re having to dole out terms like “history-making”, the point is staring us back in the face. For a long time, the industry has kept its doors shut when LGBTQ+ talent has come knocking. It’s difficult to roll out the red carpet for queer TV’s apex when trans stars (or, star, rather) are getting their flowers for the first time.

There’s still a dearth of queer characters with disabilities or HIV, and trans men have particularly poor visibility. Next year’s celebrations, too, might not be so queer: GLAAD has found that a third of the LGBTQ+ characters on screen in 2024 aren’t going to be coming back over the next 12 months, owing to series ending and a significant number of queer shows getting the chop.

But for now at least, there is something to shout about. The LGBTQ+ community is making some of the best TV around. The character range is huge: they’re playing investigative officers, couple therapists, network executives, serial killers. Some are falling in love, some are sucking toes. 

It might feel right now as if more people than ever are demanding the community get back in the closet. Get out of their schools, their sport fields, their toilets and changing rooms. But after the bigots are done protesting and raging, it’s satisfying to know that they will go back home, switch on their TVs, and there we’ll be.

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