Acting Award: Trans and non-binary people want more inclusivity

Voting began last week for the Emmys, which last year saw the first openly transgender performer nominated in the lead role category – Mj Rodriguez, for her role in the drama series Laid. She was also the third transgender performer to be nominated for an Emmy, after Laverne Cox and Rain Valdez.

In Canada, the Toronto chapter of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) renamed some of its awards to be more inclusive, but critics say the categories were still mostly defined by binary terms. .

In an industry that is finally starting to open up to underrepresented artists, challenges continue in mainstream productions, as well as the awards shows that honor them, says New Brunswick-born actress Tricia Black , known for CBC comedy Pretty Hard Cases.

We are at a time when so many people can finally be who they really are and express themselves in so many different ways.says Tricia Black, who uses the pronoun iel.

This means we need to be more considerate of each other when it comes to how we are seen. But in the gaming world, it’s hard, and it often makes you wonder, “Where do I fit in?”

Non-gendered categories

Last year’s Emmys were the first to allow actors and actresses to identify with the genderless title ofinterpreter on their certificate of nomination and their trophy. Also last year, the Gotham Awards eliminated the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, replacing them with primary and secondary categories.

Earlier this year in the music industry, the UK’s BRIT Awards also opted for more inclusive categories, while the Grammys scrapped all gendered categories in 2012.

In Canada, ACTRA Toronto, the largest branch of the Canadian Performing Artists Union, allows members to submit nominations based on the gender of the character portrayed or how a performer personally identifies.

Categories include outstanding performance – non-binary or feminine and outstanding performance – non-binary or masculine.

However, the star of the television series Sort Of, Amanda Cordner, who was cast as the non-binary character 7ven, said the categories remained mostly binary despite the title change. Have a category dedicated to best performer would have made more sense, Amanda Cordner suggested in an interview after the finalists were announced in January.

It’s always a man against a woman, Amanda Cordner said at the time. I guess that’s a step in the right direction, but I don’t know if we’re there yet.

An open door to change in Quebec

In Quebec, we are also beginning to look into the question of the representation of trans or non-binary people in award ceremonies, particularly on the Gemini side.

On our side, the categories in interpretation are gendered categories. On the other hand, the categories in animation, for example for variety shows, are neutralexplains Mara Gourd-Mercado, general manager of the Quebec section of the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television (the Academy), which organizes the Gémeaux each year.

Ms. Gourd-Mercado affirms that she has not received any demand from members of the Academy to modify the prize categories, but she prefers to act upstream rather than being at the tow of its members. That’s why the performing categories in digital media this year will be gender-neutral, a first for Gemini.

We evacuated the notion of genre to go by type of role and content. From there, we will be able to analyze the statistics and see how we proceed for the restexplains Ms. Gourd-Mercado. The goal, of course, is to continue in this direction for the categories concerning television.

Mara Gourd-Mercado is well aware of the issues relating to trans and non-binary people, she who was executive director of the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) from 2015 to 2020. At RIDM, these were discussions that had been going on for a long time, so this is a concern that I brought to the Academy with me.she explains.

I firmly believe that to be represented and seen is to exist. For us it’s not that big of a change […] A person’s gender or sex has very little bearing on the quality of their work.

For her part, Sylvie Quenneville, general manager of the Gala Québec Cinéma, affirms that the question was addressed this spring within the professional relations committee.

This is a subject that is beginning to be discussed and for which we will surely have more in-depth discussions in the fall. Of our thirty prizes, there are four that are gendered. Should we change them, should we maintain them? This is a question that we will ask ourselves in committee.she summarizes.