HBO Max, the major streaming app for HBO has announced plans to launch a new LGBTQ docuseries titled EQUAL. Equal is a four-part series that — according to Instinct Magazine — explore the lives and contributions of iconic LGBTQ activists.
According to The Advocate, the series will cover historic events and organizations including the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots, Stonewall, and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. “Equal honours the rebels of yesteryear with never-before-seen archival footage along with stylistic depictions that bring to life the gripping and true backstories of these leaders and unsung heroes,” HBO Max revealed in a media statement.
Based on the report by Instinct Magazine, the show’s four episodes each depict different subsections of the LGBTQ rights movement. Episode one explores the rise of early LGBTQ rights organizations such as The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in Los Angeles and San Francisco, while the second episode explores the trans experience in the 20th century such as the 1966 Compton Cafeteria riots in San Francisco. Black leaders within the LGBTQ rights movement are featured in the third episode, and the fourth part shows how all the above helped to push forward the Stonewall uprising and the Pride Movement.
The series, scheduled to be released in October and featuring “never-before-seen archival footage”, will include major actors like Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Rapp, Shannon Purser, Heather Matarazzo, Jamie Clayton, Isis King, Samira Wiley, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Gale Harold. Some of the LGBTQ+ activists portrayed in the series are Bayard Rustin, Black transgender pioneer Lucy Hicks Anderson, transgender celebrity of the 1950s Christine Jorgensen, A Raisin in the Sun author Lorraine Hansberry, and Stonewall Riots legend Sylvia Rivera.
“Viewers will meet a wide range of LGBTQ+ visionaries portrayed by the cast, many of whom identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community,” the media statement by HBO added.
