Post submitted by former HRC Digital Media Manager Helen Parshall

The 73rd annual Tony Awards on Sunday will feature groundbreaking stories about LGBTQ people and celebrate the LGBTQ actors and allies who brought them to the stage. The awards show will be hosted by James Corden, and we’re looking forward to a fun night.  

Here are of the artists making queer history this year:

• The cast and crew of “The Prom” are up for seven awards, including “Best Musical” -- and the story is incredibly relevant as we finish another prom season. The show brings the experiences of LGBTQ youth to the stage, telling the story of what happens when one teen wants to bring her girlfriend to her high school’s prom in a small town in Indiana. During a performance in last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Prom cast made history with the first LGBTQ kiss in the televised event. One of the stars, Caitlin Kinnunen, who is nominated for "Best Leading Actress in a Musical," recently came out in an interview, saying that she "falls somewhere in the queer or bi area."
   
• Bisexual actor Ali Stroker is nominated for her role in the revival of “Oklahoma!” Stroker uses her visibility to advocate for other LGBTQ people and those living with disabilities.
   
• Out actor Gideon Glick is nominated for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play” for his performance in the staged adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
   
• Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “The Choir Boy” is nominated for four awards, including “Best Play.” McCraney, screenwriter of the award-winning film “Moonlight,” accepted the HRC Visionary Arts Award in 2017.
   
• Trailblazing out actor André De Shields is nominated for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical” for his role in “Hadestown.”
   
• Nominated for three awards, “Burn This” features openly gay actor Brandon Uranowitz, who uses his platform to bring LGBTQ visibility to the stage. Uranowitz is up for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.”
   
• Legendary actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song” is up for two awards. The show stars 2019 HRC Visibility Award recipient Michael Urie and was produced by an incredible group of artists including acclaimed producer Richie Jackson and Americans for the Equality Act participant Justin Mikita.
   
• Openly gay actor Robin De Jesús is nominated for his performance in “Boys in the Band,” a revival of the groundbreaking 1968 play centering the friendships of a group of gay men living in New York City.
   
• Jordan Roth’s Jujamcyn Theaters Broadway is behind the show “Hadestown,” which is nominated for 14 awards. Earlier this year, Roth delivered powerful remarks on the importance of living your truth while accepting the HRC Legacy Award.
   
• Longtime HRC supporter and advocate Judith Light will receive the 2019 Tony Awards' honorary Isabelle Stevenson Award for her commitment to the LGBTQ community. Light was one of the first celebrities to use their platform to speak out against anti-LGBTQ rhetoric at the onset of the HIV & AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

HRC is proud to call so many of these nominees longtime HRC supporters and leaders in the fight for LGBTQ equality, and we wish them the best of luck.

Last year, several other noted LGBTQ people and allies were nominated. “Angels in America” won three awards, including Best Revival of a Play, showing that Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking story remains as relevant today as it was in its debut more than 20 years ago.

The Tony Awards will air Sunday at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.