With his portrayal of Pray Tell in the series POSE, he was nominated against actors such as Kit Harington (Game Of Thrones), Jason Bateman (Ozark) and Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul). The Pose character is portrayed as being a father figure to many LGBT people in the New York ballroom scene. Seized with emotion, the actor said: “The category is love y’all”, when he came on stage to accept the award.

Porter’s win in the important category is especially groundbreaking, because he is the first African-American, openly gay actor to do so. Porter, who turned 50 a day before the ceremony, began his speech with a James Baldwin quote: “It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I had been taught about myself, and halfway believed, before I could walk around this earth like I had the right to be here.” The actor added: “I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right!”

Besides thanking his mom and the POSE cast, Porter showed his gratitude towards producer Ryan Murphy by calling his name not once, but thrice. Adding: “You saw me. You believed in us. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.” Murphy produced other series such as ‘Glee’ and ‘American Horror Story’. The producer told that the profit he made with POSE, will be donated to several LGBT causes.

‘POSE’ already made history by having the biggest trans cast ever. The series itself was also nominated for an Emmy, but failed to win: Game Of Thrones took home the trophy in that category.