FILM
Oscar Winners Speak Up for LGBTQ Rights
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom scored makeup and hairstyling award
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
The 93rd annual Academy
Awards did not
necessarily feature an
abundance of LGBTQ
representation, but some LGBTQrelated
fi lms scored Oscars and
some speeches acknowledged
queer and trans folks.
The Oscar for Best Makeup and
Hairstyling went to those behind the
fi lm “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,”
which was based on Ma Rainey, a
blues singer who was not afraid to
invoke her sexual orientation in lyrics.
The award-winning makeup
and hair squad behind the Netfl ix
fi lm included Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson,
and Sergio Lopez-Rivera. That
evening, designers Neal and Wilson
made history as the fi rst Black
women to win in the category.
In Neal’s acceptance speech, she
explained how their win would
Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson, and Sergio Lopez-Rivera won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
open up more opportunities for
women of color, who are often underrepresented
in the profession.
“I stand here, as Jamika and I
break this glass ceiling, with so
much excitement for the future,” Neal
CHRIS PIZZELLO/POOL VIA REUTERS
said. “Because I can picture Black
trans women standing up here, and
Asian sisters, and our Latina sisters
and Indigenous women.”
Multi-hyphenate producer, actor,
director Tyler Perry won the Jean
Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In
his award speech, Perry denounced
bigotry against the LGBTQ community
and people of color.
“It is my hope that all of us would
teach our kids just to refuse hate,”
he said. “I refuse to hate someone
because they are Asian, Mexican,
or Black, White, or LGBTQ.” He
added, “I want to dedicate it to anyone
who wants to stand in the middle…
to refuse hate, refuse blanket
judgment, this one is for you too.”
Out bisexual director Travon Free
won an Oscar in the Best Live-Action
Short Film category for “Two
Distant Strangers,” a fi lm about a
young Black man’ experiencing police
brutality.
The calls for increased acceptance
coincide with growing anti-
LGBTQ, racist, xenophobic attacks,
and fatal shootings of Black
individuals by police offi cers in the
US.
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Commissioner
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