Jeffrey Tambor just urged Hollywood to "give transgender talent a chance"

Jeffrey Tambor won an Emmy for best actor in a comedy series on Sunday night. It marked Tambor's second consecutive win in the category, for his portrayal of a transgender woman in the Amazon series "Transparent."

In his acceptance speech, Tambor made a heartfelt appeal to Hollywood creatives and executives, urging them to source more transgender talent.

"You producers and you network owners and you agents and you creative sparks, please give transgender talent a chance," he said, after shushing his playoff music. "Give them auditions. Give them their story."

The audience broke into applause and cheers while Tambor spoke. Transgender actress Laverne Cox of "Orange is the New Black" also shouted her approval from the audience.

Tambor's speech addressed a real and worrying problem: Very few transgender characters are actually played by transgender actors. Most are played by actors who are cisgender (in other words, people whose biological sex and gender identity match up). In other words, trans actors are often denied the opportunity to portray their own on-screen stories. 

Tambor concluding his appeal by saying, "I would not be unhappy if I was the last cisgendered man to play a transgendered woman." 

Watch the moving excerpt from Tambor's speech in right here:

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