As LGBTQ+ History Month approaches, it is important that we carry on our education into racial and queer injustice.
And while integrating educational films and TV shows into your weekly watch-list is a great place to start, HBO’s new series is about to bring all that history into one place.
Introducing: Equal.
Just as the name suggests, the series will focus on historic fights for justice and equality, taking place between post-war America and the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Including never-before-seen archival footage from the events, an array of Hollywood’s finest are stepping into the roles of real-life activists and trailblazers to bring their stories to light.
Interested? Keep reading for everything you need to know about the show, from the plot to the cast and when it will stream online.
What Is The Plot Of EQUAL?
Chronicling the history of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, the four-part HBO series features dozens of queer luminaries and covers various civil rights and LGBTQ+ movements throughout history.
Part one of the docuseries explores the rise of early organisations, The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Part two will chronicle the 20th century transgender experience, bookended by the 1966 Compton Cafeteria riots in San Francisco. Part three examines the contributions from the Black community on the growing LGBTQ+ civil rights movement and part four ties in the decades long struggles with the culminated Stonewall uprising—the beginning of the Pride movement.
The series will feature reenactments of iconic moments in history, along with archival footage of the real people who pushed for equality.
Who Is In The Cast Of EQUAL?
In order to depict such important moments in history accurately, a star-studded cast has been announced to bring the events back to life. Some of the stars, and the trailblazers they’ll be portraying, are as follows:
Samira Wiley (Orange Is The New Black) as Lorraine Hansbury, the famed A Raisin in the Sun author and civil rights leader who discussed her queer identity and oppression under various pseudonyms. Alexandra Grey (Transparent) as Lucy Hicks Anderson, a prominent prohibition-era entrepreneur and one of the first documented Black transgender persons in the U.S.
Shannon Purser (Stranger Things) and Heather Matarazzo (The Princess Diaries) as same-sex couple Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, publishers of The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the U.S.. And Jamie Clayton (Sense8) as Christine Jorgensen, known as the world’s first transgender celebrity, who went under gender confirmation surgery in the early 1950s.
The character list also includes advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin; First LGBTQ+ candidate to run for office, José Sarria; activist and close friend to Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera; and many, many more.
When Can We Watch EQUAL?
Equal is set to drop in October in honour of LGBT History Month, however HBO Max has yet to announce a date.
As most HBO projects make their way onto Australian streaming service Binge, we can assume that’s where Equal will be headed.
