Jeffrey Tambor won Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in Transparent as a trans parent, and Jill Soloway won Outstanding Directing for the same Amazon series. Both saluted the transgender community and Soloway pointed out the discrimination still faced by trans people across the country.
Said Soloway:
“Thank you to my Mapa Carrie for coming out, and coming to L.A. and coming here tonight. And something interesting about my Mapa Carrie. She could tomorrow, go and try to find an apartment and in 32 states it would be legal for the landlord to look her in the eye and say, ‘We don't rent to trans people. We don't have a trans tipping point yet — we have a trans civil rights problem, so go to TransEquality.org and vote to pass the Trans Equality Bill.”
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Said Tambor:
“I'm so, so honored. You know I had a teacher who used to say, ‘when you act, you have to act as iffier life depends on it.' And now I've been given the opportunity to act because people's lives depend on it…Not to repeat myself, but to specifically repeat myself, I'd like to dedicate my performance and this award to the transgender community. Thank you for your patience, thank you for your courage, thank you for your stories, thank you for your inspiration, thank you for letting us be part of the change. God bless you.”
Watch their speeches:
