The Oscars could have made history—but they didn't

Mey Rude
·2 min read
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Lily Gladstone has been breaking barriers her whole career, but unfortunately, the Academy Awards didn't want to help her break one more.

Gladstone, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns, identifies as “middle-gendered” and has said that using they/them pronouns is a “way of decolonizing gender” for themself. They were nominated in the Best Actress category at last night's Oscars, and would have been the first Native American and first nonbinary actor to win an acting Oscar if they won. Instead, the award went to previous Oscar winner Emma Stone for her role in Poor Things.

In her acceptance speech, Stone shouted out the other nominees, and said, "Sandra, Annette, Cary, Lily, I share this with you," about her statue. "I'm in awe of you and it has been such an honor to do this with you."

Previous indigenous nominees in the Best Actress category include Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider and Yalitza Aparicio for Roma.

The first out trans Oscar nominee was Angela Morely, who in 1974 was nominated for Best Music, Original Song Score or Adaptation for The Little Prince, and again in 1977 for The Slipper and the Rose – The Story of Cinderella.

Two other out trans people have been nominated, but neither won. In 2015, Anohni was nominated for Best Song for “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction, and in 2017, when he was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for Strong Island, Yance Ford became the first out trans man to be nominated for an Oscar.

Before he came out as trans, Elliot Page was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar in 2007 for playing the lead character in Juno, and in 2015, before they came out as nonbinary, gay singer Sam Smith won an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre. Many viewers took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the winner of the award.