Pop Culture Fix: Queers Shine on Red Carpet as The Emmys Continue Their Racism and Ableism

Feature photos by Rich Fury / Getty images

Welcome to your first Pop Culture Fix of the week! I hope you kicked off this Monday with a tasty breakfast and are staying hydrated out there!


+ Despite a record number of nominations, exactly zero actors of color won Emmys last night, in a show that featured plenty of actors of color presenting awards but none of them receiving awards.

+ CBS had also promised disability activist / Crip Camp director James LeBrecht that this year they’d install an accessibility ramp to the Emmys stage that would be both visible to the audience in the theater and the TV audience at home. They lied.

+ It’s hard to feel anything but complete fury and dejection reading both of those things, but, of note also in last night’s Emmys: women swept comedy and drama directing for the first time, RuPaul became the most awarded Black artist in Emmys history, and Michaela Coel became the  first Black woman to win Outstanding Writing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie and delivered the best speech / moment of the night.

+ Here’s some queer celebs who were 🔥 despite it all.

+ Niecy Nash, my god!

+ Michaela Coel and Tessa Thompson canoodling and rooting for everyone Black (in this picture).

+ Nicole Byer in regal purple.

+ Sarah Paulson causing Holland Taylor to lose her breath.

+ Samira in a suit!

+ Versace treating MJ Rodriguez right.

+ And I’ll just leave you with Viola Davis 2015 Emmys speech.

+ A trailer already for the new season of Legends of Tomorrow. (This is a perfect tagline for this show!)

+ Amazon is working on a She-Ra live action series that is unfortunately not connected to Netflix’s ubiquitously gay cartoon.

+ Will Marvel’s phase four “queer awakening” actually make a difference at Disney? 

+ Some of the best queer storylines in video games.

+ Julien Baker on vulnerability through music and safety in queer communities.

+ Black Girl Nerds has an exclusive first look trailer and images for the new season of Batwoman!

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1719 articles for us.

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