The 2024 primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in television Monday night in Los Angeles, and several stars couldn’t resist getting political in their acceptance speeches.
Drag queen RuPaul won the Emmy award for Best Reality Competition Program and used the acceptance speech to celebrate drag queen story hours.
“If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her because knowledge is power, and if someone tries to restrict your access to power, they are trying to scare you. So listen to a drag queen!” RuPaul said to the crowd.
The star’s show Drag Race is now on Season 16 on MTV, frequently delivering high ratings among the 18-49 and 18-34 age demographics.
Drag queen story hours have been criticized by parent movements at school boards, local libraries and bookstores across the country.
Actress Niecy Nash-Betts won the Emmy for best supporting actress in a limited series for her work in the Netflix series “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” She used her speech to share several thank yous, including accepting it on the behalf of minority women who have “gone unheard, yet overpoliced.”
“I want to thank me, for believing in me and doing what they said I could not do,” she continued. “I want to say to myself in front of all you beautiful people, ‘Go, girl, with your bad self. You did that.’ Finally, I accept this award on behalf of every Black and Brown woman who have gone unheard, yet over-policed, like Glenda Cleveland, like Sandra Bland, like Breonna Taylor!” she said holding her award.
The audience cheered her speech as she continued to declare that she would speak truth to power “until the day I die.”
The Bear actress Ayo Edebiri received an Emmy for supporting actress in a comedy series and thanked her parents for their love and support.
“Thank you so much for loving me and letting me feel beautiful and black and proud of all of that. I love you so much. Probably not a dream to immigrate to this country and have your daughter go, ‘I wanna do improv,’ but you are real ones,” Edebiri said.
The Television Academy also gave GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBT) media advocacy organization, the Governors Award for its work in “correcting false and harmful narratives.”
“I’m so very proud that this last season of Ted Lasso included story lines that truly celebrated LGBT characters,” Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham said as she introduced the Governors Award.
The award presenters said that GLAAD has consulted for the past four decades on nearly every television series and television movie with an LGBT character.
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“The world urgently needs culture changing stories about transgender people,” GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said in her acceptance speech. “Sharing stories is the anecdote and now is the time to take action.”
The ceremony was delayed by several months after dual writers’ and actors’ strikes, pushing the awards into January at the peak of Hollywood award season.
