Transparent creator at the Emmys: “We have a trans civil rights problem”

Amazon’s Transparent has been having a good night at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, winning prizes for direction and its lead actor, Jeffrey Tambor, in the early going. But what many viewers — including many viewers of the series — don’t know is that the show is based loosely on the real experiences of its creator, Jill Soloway.

Soloway’s own “moppa” (the term the characters in Transparent use to refer to Tambor’s character, Maura, who gender transitions late in life) also formed the basis of Soloway’s acceptance speech when she won for directing the episode “Best New Girl.“

(Read more about the tremendous direction of this episode here.)

Soloway went both personal and political in her remarks, as you can see above.

“My moppa, Carrie, she could, tomorrow, go and try to find an apartment and in 32 states, and it would be legal for the landlord to look her in the eye and say we don’t rent to trans people,” Soloway said. “We don’t have a trans tipping point yet. We have a trans civil rights problem.”

Soloway directed viewers to transequality.org for more information.