On Wednesday, at the 78th Golden Globe awards, Ryan Murphy, the television producer and creator, was honored with the Carol Burnett award for his achievements in television. In his acceptance speech, Murphy, who is an LGBTQ+ advocate, celebrated queer art and used his platform to give a shout out to the actors that have been in his projects and have made history.
Murphy praised the groundbreaking work of trans actress Michaela Jae Rodriguez, who won the Golden Globe last year for Best Actress in a Television Drama for her work in Murphy’s series Pose. He also acknowledged the work of Billy Porter, who starred in Murphy’s Pose and introduced him at the ceremony, and Niecy Nash, who received her first Golden Globe nomination for Murphy’s controversial Netflix show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
In his speech, Murphy mentioned that growing up, he didn’t see himself represented in the media and how hard it is being a queer kid in America and all over the world. He ended his speech by encouraging kids watching to look up to the actors he praised, as examples of possibility and to take the invisible and unloved, and make them the heroes they long to see in pop culture.
