Straight actors have a long history of winning Academy awards for playing gay characters, but the list of openly queer actors receiving the same recognition is much shorter.
This year, however, Colman Domingo and Jodie Foster have joined that exclusive club. Domingo received a nomination for best actor in a leading role for playing the title character in "Rustin," Netflix's biopic about the gay Black civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. Foster was nominated for her supporting role in "Nyad" where she plays out lesbian Bonnie Stoll, the real-life friend and coach of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad.
Domingo is only the second openly gay man to earn an Oscar nomination for playing a gay character.
