Phil McCarten/Invision for the Television Academy/AP ImagesJill Soloway used her platform at the Emmys today to speak about a subject close to her heart.
The 49-year-old television creator took home the Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for the Transparent episode "Best New Girl."
After thanking the cast, crew and her family, she gave a shout-out to her Mapa, who inspired the series after coming out as transgender more than three years ago.
"Thank you Mapa for coming out and coming to L.A. And coming here tonight. And something interesting about my Mapa, Carrie, she could, tomorrow, go and try to find an apartment and in 32 states, it would be legal for the landlord to look her in the eye and say 'we don't rent to transpeople.'"
Soloway continued, asking the audience to help fight for equality for the transgender community.
"We don't have a trans tipping point yet," she said. "We have a trans civil rights problem, so go to transequality.org and vote to pass the trans equality bill. Thank you."
This is the first Emmy win for Soloway. Transparent is also nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Congrats!