Arts & Entertainment
A very queer night at the Emmys
Tillman makes history; Cumming wins for ‘Traitors’
When “Severance” star Tramell Tillman became the first gay Black man to win for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, the first person he thanked was his mother.
“Mama, you were there for me when no one else was and no one else would show up,” the first-time winner said onstage, during his acceptance speech.
“Your loving kindness stays with me, and this is for you. Thank you to the Academy. I am full. I am humbled. I am honored. And as my mama would say, ‘Whew. Look at God.’ Thank you.”
Backstage in the pressroom, Tillman said he was “on cloud nine” and “still processing” the historic win.
“I am fortunate to be in the company of such great actors that have gone before me, like Andre Braugher, Ossie Davis, Michael K. Williams, that have done beautiful work, and those that are still with us today, like Giancarlo Esposito and Jeffrey Wright,” he said.
“These men, I’ve been taken by their work for years, and I borrow from them. So I’m just honored to be in the class.”
Tillman also mentioned the “importance of taking a chance on yourself,” adding he was “told that I would never make it as an actor, that it’s a career that leads to a dead end.”
But after seeing his classmates pursue their dreams, he realized it was time for him to take a chance, “I’ve learned there are no guarantees in life, but you continue to take a chance to see what happens.”
Another first-time LGBTQ winner who was thrilled with her win was “Adolescence’s” Erin Doherty, who won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Doherty thanked her girlfriend Sinead Donnelly onstage. “Sinead, thank you for making me the happiest person in the world. I love you with everything I’ve got,” she said lovingly.
In addition, a visibly shocked Jeff Hiller won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in “Somebody Somewhere.”
Thanking his “sweet husband,” Hiller said: “I feel like I’m going to cry because for the past 25 years, I’ve been, like ‘world, I want to be an actor!’ and the world’s, like, ‘maybe computers.’ I just want to say thank you to HBO for putting a show about sweaty middle-aged people on the same network as the sexy teens of ‘Euphoria!’ Thank you to the Duplass brothers, Carolyn Straus, and Hanna Boss and Paul Thureen who wrote a show about connecting and love, in this time when compassion is seen as a weakness.”
Alan Cumming picked up his second Emmy for hosting Peacock’s brilliant competition show “The Traitors.”
“Thanks to everyone who watches the show. Thanks to all of the people who have ‘Traitors’ parties and dress up as me. We see you. We love you!” he told the audience onstage.
Cumming is also an executive producer on the competition series. “Thank you to our crazy cast and our crew in Scotland who had to understand the concept of the Scottish summer is sometimes oxymoronic,” he quipped.
He also sent loving words to his hubby. Thanking his husband Grant, “who brings joy into my life every single day,” Cumming acknowledged that this was a difficult time we live in. But “it’s so great that our show brings a little bit of joy into this life.”
In the pressroom, Cumming was asked who he thinks should join the show, Cumming responded, “I’m sure our president would be very good on the show. Having a lot of chaos and sort of turmoil and treachery, so maybe he’d like to come on and be paid for that, probably better than he gets as president.”
At the awards show, Cumming supported trans rights, wearing a decorative pin to the lapel of his dapper tuxedo.
While this next season will be full of celebrities, the following season of “The Traitors” will feature regular people rather than Hollywood types.
Around town, there was a plethora of gifting suites activity, with numerous LGBTQ nominees and vendors.
“After 25 years of producing the official Grammy’s gift lounge, it feels like a full circle moment to be able to add something as prestigious as the Emmy Awards Giving Suite to our roster,” said organizer Lash Fary.
“To still be expanding our scope after all these years is a testament to how gifts make people feel … something that isn’t simply a trend. I’m incredibly proud of this new relationship and that sharing gifts I love with talented people I respect is something that allows me to live a beautiful life.”
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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Philippines Supreme Court rules same-sex couples can co-own property
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Pride flag removed from Stonewall Monument as Trump targets LGBTQ landmarks
Capital Pride wins anti-stalking order against local activist
LGBTQ Venezuelans in Colombia uncertain about homeland’s future
D.C. bar Rush facing eviction on charge of failing to pay rent
D.C. non-profits find creative ways to aid the unhoused amid funding cuts
Blade, Pride House LA announce 2028 Olympics partnership
Calendar: February 6-12
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