Transparent’s Jeffrey Tambor Pleads For Transgender Equality in Hollywood in Emmy Speech

Jeffrey Tambor arrives with wife Kasia as they make their way onto the red carpet at the 2016 Emmy Awards held at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday (September 18) in Los Angeles.

“I’m so honored to be in this category with these artistic killers”, Tambor said before thanking Soloway and imploring producers, network owners, and agents to give transgender talent a chance.

Tambor added that he “would not be unhappy if [he were] the last cisgender male [actor] to play a female transgender [person] on television”. It’s really a problem.

“And the world changes”, she said. “It’s time to hand over the keys to the kingdom, open the gates and allow more of these people to tell their own stories”. “I would not be here today if somebody didn’t give me a chance”. Sarah Paulson won outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie for playing prosecutor Marcia Clark in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson; the real Clark accompanied her to the ceremony. “I haven’t always been a very good man, but I play one hell of a woman”, the actor said while accepting the award.

Soloway, who won the Emmy for outstanding director of a comedy series, also made a powerful plea to “stop violence against transgender woman, and topple the patriarchy”.